Expansion of Consumer Solidarity on Environmental Issues
Active Announcements of Mid- to Long-Term Environmental Practice Efforts
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Companies are increasingly announcing concrete action plans along with medium- to long-term plastic reduction goals based on their awareness of plastic issues. This is because problems caused by plastic waste are becoming more severe day by day. According to a paper published in Science magazine last July, unless global measures are taken, 1.3 billion tons of plastic waste equivalent to 1.5 times the area of the UK are expected to be generated. In particular, due to the surge in delivery food, online shopping, and disposable product use caused by COVID-19, the seriousness of issues related to used plastic has come to the forefront.
According to the related industry on the 21st, Coca-Cola is a representative company that early on announced efforts to reduce plastic based on a sense of responsibility for a sustainable society and environment.
In 2018, The Coca-Cola Company set a goal to apply recyclable materials to all beverage packages produced by 2030. Through this, they aim to collect and recycle 100% of all product packages sold by 2030, and to increase the use of recycled materials in package production by replacing all beverage packages with recyclable materials by 2025, among other efforts.
They also established a concrete plan to increase the proportion of recycled material packaging to 25% by 2025. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola signed a ‘Packaging Recycling Ease Expansion Agreement’ with the Ministry of Environment and pledged to contribute to creating a positive environmental impact through packages designed for recycling ease from the production stage. Based on this, they launched ‘Seagram Label-Free,’ the first label-free product among domestic carbonated beverages, and strengthened eco-friendly packaging by releasing label-free products for their bottled water brands ‘Gangwon Pyeongchangsu’ and ‘Hwio Sunsu,’ as well as the fruit and vegetable beverage ‘Toreta.’
McDonald’s and Starbucks, which signed an agreement with the Ministry of Environment last November to promote the use of personal and reusable cups and reduce plastic straws, also announced eco-friendly visions.
In October last year, McDonald’s announced a new slogan, ‘Small but Big Changes for a Better World,’ and stated plans to reduce plastic use by 2025 and convert all packaging to recyclable or reusable materials. They also plan to replace inks used in packaging with natural inks.
As a first step, they introduced ‘Ttukkeongi,’ a lid that allows drinking without a straw, for all beverages domestically, reducing plastic straw use by an average of 4.3 tons per month, a 32% decrease compared to the same period last year.
Starbucks Korea also announced phased plastic reduction goals within its ESG strategy project ‘Valuable Together’ through 2025. They plan to challenge the complete discontinuation of single-use cups by introducing reusable cups. To this end, they selected four pilot stores in Jeju last July to operate a reusable cup system. Alongside this, they also set a goal to reduce 1 billion plastic straws.
Additionally, Starbucks used plastic cups and clear PET bottles discarded in stores for Starbucks MD products, which are very popular among the MZ generation. Through a campaign in collaboration with the eco-friendly outdoor brand Now, the collected waste plastic was reborn into four types of MD products: bags, cushions, pouches, and cup holders.
Cosmetics companies also declared medium- to long-term plastic reduction goals.
Amorepacific included five goals for sustainable management, including plastic reduction. Amorepacific promised to reduce product packaging and plastic usage and to recycle 100% of plastic packaging. They also revealed a concrete action plan to reduce 1,300 tons, which is 9.4% of the expected plastic usage, by 2025.
L’Occitane also plans to produce 100% of product containers from recycled plastic and introduce various eco-refill products by 2025, four years from now.
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