A technical diagnosis project to reduce waste plastic coming out of manufacturing plants began on the 23rd. The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Korea Environment Corporation are running it together. Ten workplaces have been set as the sites to receive the diagnosis. The waste coming out of these plants amounts to 113,382 tons a year.
Waste synthetic resin accounts for 39,547 tons of that. It is 34.9% of the total waste. By treatment method, 81,640 tons, or 72%, goes to recycling, and 21,858 tons, or 19.3%, is burned. The amount landfilled is 1,185 tons, 1%.
The selection requirements were set tightly. The targets are sites in 18 industries, including rubber and plastic product manufacturing, that discharged an annual average of at least 100 tons of designated waste or at least 1,000 tons of business waste over the past three years. Companies whose recycling rate is already high were left out. Large companies with ample capacity to put their own money into equipment, and workplaces handling waste that is hard to recycle by nature, were also excluded.
The circumstances of the three sites identified by name each differ.
Novelis Korea sends process sludge and slag generated in making aluminum to recycling. But it burns all 934 tons of waste synthetic resin such as packaging film. It buries 77 tons of dust in the ground.
Hankuk Carbon's No. 2 plant discharges 14,884 tons of waste synthetic resin from its urethane foam process, and consigns 2,770 tons of it outside for incineration. In the case of ES Green, 3,497 tons out of 4,374 tons head for the incinerator.
The government is applying two technologies. One is pyrolysis. It heats polymer waste plastic to 400-600 degrees Celsius and returns it to raw materials such as naphtha.
The other is optical sorting equipment. It uses light to pick out waste plastic in which several materials are mixed together, raising sorting accuracy. The Climate Ministry believes that of the 39,547 tons of waste plastic at the target companies, the 14,130 tons that are incinerated, 35.7% by share, can be shifted toward recycled raw material and pyrolysis oil.
From next year, support for building smart eco-factories and support for circular economy performance management will be joined together into one package. Financial programs such as the future environmental industry development loan and interest support for green asset-backed securities (G-ABS) are also subject to linkage. Whether the improvement plans were actually kept is verified by visiting the sites again and cross-checking Olbaro System records.
The conversion target does not read as one figure. There is a goal of turning 4,600 tons of waste synthetic resin that had been incinerated or landfilled and 77 tons of dust and the like over to recycling and cutting waste generation itself by 320 tons, while an expected figure of converting the 14,130 tons that are incinerated was presented along with it. Whether it is a target line that must be met or a theoretically possible potential is divided, and what standard the project's results are measured by later will settle it.
The same current is rolling outside the factories as well. On the 13th, the Climate Ministry signed an agreement on spreading a plastic-free practice culture with the coffee, fast food and bakery industries at the Seoul Upcycling Plaza. Sixteen coffee brands, five fast food companies and two bakery companies, along with some 150 individual stores, put their names down. Adding up all the participating stores comes to about 22,000 nationwide.
The stores have three promises to keep. They will not use containers such as PET cans that disturb the recycling system. They will not hand over two disposable cups stacked together just because a drink is hot. They will give out straws only when a customer asks.
Bring a tumbler and 300 won in carbon neutrality points is added on top of a price discount. Depending on the store, up to 800 won comes back. Detailed practice strategies for each store will go into full operation from September.
The 800 won saved on a cup of coffee and the 10,000 tons turned back from a factory incinerator are different in scale. The two projects each set their schedules and started in the same year. The results of the store practice strategies and the factory technical diagnosis will be confirmed in tallies after September.
