Manufacturers’ recycling energises Korean economy

Archiv – The Korean government’s waste recycling efforts generated over 1.7 trillion won in profits and created about 3 200 jobs, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) says in a recent statement.
South Korea | The Korean government’s waste recycling efforts generated over 1.7 trillion won in profits and created about 3 200 jobs, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) says in a recent statement.
For the past four years, the MOE has operated an ’Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)’ system, in which producers take responsibility for their products up to their disposal by consumers. The system has so far led to the recycling of 4.7 million tonnes of plastic wrapping, cans, electronic appliances and other waste. EPR has also sharply reduced expenditures on raw materials.
The lack of producer responsibility for waste reduction when they stood in a prominent position to implement and benefit from such recycling led to adoption of the EPR system, an MOE official explains.
The official says EPR holds producers accountable for the entire life cycle of their products in order to encourage innovative product design, materials use, and business management through economic incentives.
The volume of recycling in 2006 showed a 35.5% increase over the same figure for 2000, the last year when EPR was not in effect, or 1.2 million tonnes from 930 000 tonnes.
By products, recycling of home appliances jumped 116% to 93 000 tonnes from 43 000 during the same period, while that of plastic wrappings grew 97% to about 300 000 tonnes from 150 000 tonnes.
’The big increase in recycling over the last four years is largely attributable to separate garbage collection, recycling facility expansion and enhanced awareness,’ says another MOE official.