[Consumerwide - Jinil Kang Reporter / Yohan Bok Reporter] The industry began reducing plastic waste by decreasing the use of plastic or using recycled plastic products.

Referring to a report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2021), the annual plastic waste of Korea counts 88kg, which ranks third after the US and the UK. The same year, 17.7% of Korean citizens consumed over 7 pets a week, referring to research on "transparent pet bottle consumption (based on data from a thousand Korean participants)" by the Korea Consumer Agency. Plastic is deeply embedded in our lives through water, air, soil, and food; thus, it will eventually influence us. According to research by a team from Columbia University NY published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, a litre of water bottle includes 240,000 pieces of plastic particle in seven types, and 90% of them were microplastic. (1㎛~1㎜) According to the WWF, people in modern society are taking in an average of 5 grammes of microplastic a week, which weighs about 1 credit card. Reducing the use of plastic is the first step to protecting the earth.

Recently, industry has been actively involved in a citizen's campaign, "Byebye Plastic Challenge (the Ministry of Environment), which means to say good-bye to plastic. The participant gets to take the following action: uploading a video that contains both hands-waving action (meaning bye) along with a message on reducing plastic waste, encouraging good consumption, and a challenge to the next participant on SNS. Na Gyeongsu, the CEO of SK Geocentric, who already participated in the challenge, has appointed Lee Gukhwan, the CEO of Woowa Brothers. Lee has passed on the message of their effort for the environment as a business: August 2022 reusable container delivery service, use of paper filling at Baemin Bmart, use of paper box tape at Baemin stationary store, providing reusable cups in the company cafe (cup rental policy), and appointed Woo Miryeong, the CEO of Lush Korea, as the next participant. The Woowa Brothers have announced a 200 billion won scale of social investment and shared growth plans on March 3. The plan includes the use of recycled energy, expanding sustainable packaging, changing delivery methods to environmental methods, and the participation of relevant parties, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2032 compared to 2022 and to create and expand an environmental delivery culture. Lee Sangmok, the CEO of Amorepacific Group, participated in the challenge appointed by Han Cheyang, the CEO of Emart. He has introduced their campaign, which begins early this year (less plastic, we are fantastic!), and efforts to reduce plastic waste as a group through a video. The message video was uploaded to the official group SNS; 2009~2023: collecting cosmetics containers weigh 2,583 tonnes from department stores, marts, and Aritaum stores; 2024 January: launching Amoremall online container collection campaign, February: signing an MOU with the Korea Resource Circulation and Distribution Support Centre, April: collecting cosmetic glass bottles in public housing. Lee Inyoung, the CEO of SSGdotcome, and Park Minhye, the secretary general of WWF, were appointed for the next challenge. Lee Sungrim (chairman of Busan Infrastructure Corporation), Jang Jeguk (chancellor of Dongseo University), Ryu Jin (chairman of The Federation of Korean Industries), Lee Gangdeok (major of Pohang/Gyeongnam Province), Na Gyeongsu (CEO of SKGeocentric), and Ha Yoonsu (head of provincial educational administration) also participated in the campaign.

A number of businesses are not only taking the challenge but also taking a practical step. McDonald's Korea began initiating various steps. They began using drinking lids in 2020, using reusable containers in 2022, and producing uniforms out of plastic waste from stores for their staff in cooperation with BYN Black Yark in 2023. In February 2023, overall, McDonald's stores began using rPET cups and lids, which are made out of 500 ml (2.5 bottles per unit) of pet bottle waste, for serving Sunday ice cream. McDonald's is targeting replacing all the packaging and containers for coffee menus with reusable materials this year to reduce carbon emissions (59%), while also creating a sustainable resource circulation system. Coca-Cola Korea has been facilitating the "Using your plastic one more time:Wonderful Campaign," which is designed for consumers to experience the life cycle of used drink pets, since 2020. (collection rate: 88%) During Season 4 in 2023, over 17.6 tonnes of transparent pet bottles, which counted 1.27 million units of 500-ml bottles, were collected, and they are going to be recycled as raw material for rPET. Brita has been facilitating water filter collection programs. One filter has the capacity to filter 150 litres of water at maximum, which is enough to replace 300 units of 500-ml water bottles along with 15 kg of plastic and 112.5 kg of CO2 reduction effect. They have been running a filter recycling programme, Green Leaf Membership, since September 2021 and collected over 83,000 filters during the first year and 330,000 filters until November 2023. This has resulted in over 1,000 metric tonnes of disposable plastic and 7,000 metric tonnes of CO2 reduction in Korea. LGU began using reusable containers at the cafe in its headquarters, and they estimate they will reduce approximately 7 tonnes of plastic a year. LGU has reduced the size of the Usim plate because the plates, which scale 9 times the Usim (1g per plate), are thrown away after being used. At the same time, they have changed the guideline book and delivery bag to FSC-certified material. As a result, they estimate reducing 1 tonne of plastic waste (out of 1 million of usim sales) and 5 tonnes of paper trash (90 trees). Starbucks has begun to offer a 400-won discount or one additional star credit for the use of a personal cup. (reward program)    The amount of personal cups used at Starbucks counts annually at 17.39 million in 2020, 21.9 million in 2021, 25.3 million in 2022, and 29.6 million in 2023, and the customer benefit provided through Starbucks counts 12 billion won until November 2023 for the use of personal cups. Besides, they have been encouraging customers to use reusable cups every 10th of a month since 2018. (The day without a disposable cup) Donga Otsuka is targeting 0% in plastic, which is derived from fossil fuels, by 2050 by practicing the use of eco-PET, making products lighter, expanding the use of non-labelled products starting in 2023, and expanding the sustainable PET rate to 50% by 2030. In particular, Donga Otsuka has reduced a total 1266 tonnes of CO2 emissions by collecting and recycling electric and electronic product waste through the E-resource circulation system since January. Mael Dairies has been making an impact by planting 1,650 30-year-old pine trees throughout the year by applying green packaging (cups without straws and caps) for coffee cups since December 2023. Lottewellfood has been reducing annually 50 tonnes of plastic by using C-rPET for 750-ml Pasteur Milk product containers since November 2023. Binggrae has reduced the amount of plastic in containers for its main product, reused plastic leftover from milk product manufacturing (reducing 4,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually), and changed packaging to recyclable material since December 2021 as a part of their 3R (Recycle, Reduce, Redesign) project. (reducing 6,588 tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023)

According to McKinsey's global market research business and the domestic petrochemistry industry, the global plastic waste market will reach 55 trillion won in 2024 with 7.6% growth annually, and it's estimated to reach 600 trillion won by 2050. Hankukpaper is replacing plastic with Greenshield material, which is biodegradable in three months. It can be applied to a variety of products, including circular containers, paper cups, trays, plates, and molds. LG Chemical is demonstrating PEC material, which is made out of CO2 and ethylene oxide and can be applied from tender film to hard case, during the world-large beauty exposition "Cosmoprof Bologna 2024" in Italy. The thermal separation industry, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels by separating plastic waste and turning it into chemical products, is growing as a blue ocean. Recycled fuel is used for producing clothes, car parts, industrial raw materials, construction materials, and daily necessities, or as crude oil by using thermal technology. Besides, there has got to be financial support along with government regulation in order to complete a circular economy based on plastic waste, which involves R&D, test projects, commercialization, and environmental technology (thermal technology).