Ministry of Land, Joint Inspection of Defective Materials in Manufacturing and Distribution Stages to be Conducted Until November

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 14th that it will conduct inspections on the manufacturing and distribution management of eco-friendly building materials from this month until November to strengthen preventive management from the manufacturing and distribution stages.

Since 2018, the Ministry has conducted joint inspections with specialized organizations such as the Korea Land and Housing Corporation every year to prevent the manufacturing and distribution of non-compliant eco-friendly building materials. Last year, all non-compliant building materials that exceeded pollutant emission standards or failed to secure quality performance were ordered to be completely discarded, and in cases where construction had already been carried out, corrective actions such as re-construction were completed for 6 out of 23 cases (about 26%). In fact, inspections on five types of products?built-in (storage) furniture, kitchen furniture, PL windows, wooden windows, and ready-mixed concrete (23 products)?resulted in three types (6 products), including kitchen furniture and PL windows, being judged as non-compliant.

This year, the focus will be on compliance with eco-friendly performance standards for major raw materials and subsidiary materials of built-in furniture, kitchen furniture, and floor finishing materials, which have a significant impact on the residential environment. The Ministry plans to conduct unannounced visits to companies manufacturing and supplying the targeted eco-friendly building materials, collect samples of each material, and intensively inspect whether they meet the eco-friendly performance standards.

Additionally, the Ministry plans to listen to industry difficulties and opinions at the inspection sites to identify areas for system improvement and consider measures to encourage voluntary quality management enhancement.

Kim Kyung-heon, Director of the Housing Construction Supply Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Non-compliant eco-friendly building materials threaten a safe and comfortable residential environment and incur high social costs for re-construction, so preventive management is important." He added, "We will continue efforts to foster a field culture that produces and distributes sound eco-friendly building materials so that citizens can live safely and comfortably in pleasant and safe homes."