Gyeongnam, Separate Transparent PET Bottle Disposal Starting from the 25th

High Value-Added Transparent PET Bottles ... Reducing Unnecessary Recycling Processes

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Saeyan] The mandatory separate collection of transparent PET bottles in apartment complexes will be implemented.

Gyeongnam Province announced on the 22nd that starting from the 25th, all transparent PET bottles generated in apartment complexes must be separated from existing waste plastic products and disposed of in dedicated transparent PET bottle collection bins.

This reflects the revision of the Ministry of Environment's "Guidelines on the Separate Collection of Recyclable Resources," and will be implemented for single-family homes starting December 25 next year.

Currently, the province is conducting pilot programs in the Masan area of Changwon City and Gimhae City to establish the separate collection of transparent PET bottles.

The correct method for separating and disposing of transparent PET bottles is to empty the contents, remove the outer label, crush the bottle, and dispose of it in the dedicated transparent PET bottle collection bin.

This is to separately collect transparent PET bottles, which have higher added value and recycling rates compared to other plastics, for resource recycling purposes.

With this implementation, it is expected to replace the annual 22,000 tons of high-quality waste PET bottles that have been imported from Japan.

Kim Taesu, Director of Environmental Policy at the province, stated, “If transparent PET bottles, which have the highest added value among waste plastics, are properly separated and disposed of at home, unnecessary recycling processes can be reduced, increasing the recycling rate, and it can also replace the waste PET bottles that were previously imported.”