From July 26, small or contaminated plastic bags can also be disposed of as waste plastic
Geumcheon-gu (Mayor Yu Seong-hoon) announced that starting this month, to reduce household waste, it will relax the criteria for separate disposal of waste vinyl and distribute dedicated waste vinyl disposal bags to commercial facilities.
According to the 6th National Waste Statistics Survey (2021-2022), plastic use has increased since COVID-19, and the amount of plastic disposed of without separation is also rising.
In particular, the proportion of vinyl among plastics mixed in volume-based waste bags is overwhelmingly high, so separate disposal of waste vinyl is being promoted for focused management.
From this month, all types, materials, and sizes of vinyl are included in the waste vinyl disposal target. Previously disposed items in volume-based waste bags such as thermal insulation packs, coffee packaging vinyl, food ingredient packaging vinyl, colored vinyl, vinyl gloves, bubble wrap (air cap), and onion nets are also included.
Small vinyl items like triangular kimbap wrappers, medicine packets, and ramen topping bags, as well as vinyl used to store general waste, can be emptied and separately collected in transparent or translucent vinyl bags for disposal. Shipping labels attached to delivery vinyl can be disposed of without removal.
However, waste vinyl contaminated with solid substances like red pepper paste must be rinsed with water to remove foreign substances before disposal. Also, food packaging vinyl (wrap) used in stores cannot be disposed of as waste vinyl and must be thrown away in general volume-based waste bags.
Starting from the 26th of this month, the district will sequentially distribute 300,000 dedicated waste vinyl bags (50ℓ), 30 bags per business, to about 10,000 business sites that generate large amounts of waste vinyl in the area. Priority was given to the top 10 industries that produce large amounts of waste vinyl, such as restaurants and convenience stores.
These businesses should separately collect waste vinyl and dispose of it in the dedicated bags. After using all the dedicated bags, they can separate and dispose of waste vinyl in transparent or translucent vinyl bags.
Yu Seong-hoon, Mayor of Geumcheon-gu, said, “In preparation for the ban on direct landfill of household waste in the metropolitan area by 2026 and to reduce greenhouse gases, separate disposal of waste vinyl is urgently needed,” and added, “We hope residents actively participate to separately collect and recycle waste vinyl.”
The district will strengthen promotion of waste vinyl separate disposal by operating ‘Waste Resource Managers’ from August. These resource managers will visit businesses that produce large amounts of waste vinyl in concentrated management areas such as shopping districts to provide guidance on separate disposal methods.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
