| Environment Minister Han Jeoung-ae, second from left, poses next to clothes made from recycled plastic bottles, which will be the new sportswear for members of the Army, at the Hotel President in Seoul, March 15. Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
| Transparent plastic bottles / gettyimagesbank |
The deal, signed March 15, was jointly made by the ministries of the environment and national defense, as well as the NPA and the Korea Federation of Textile Industries.
The clothing items for soldiers and police officers come in several types that are available for use in summer and winter, and also for outdoor activities and casual on-duty uniforms. The defense ministry agreed to buy 10,000 outfits consisting of shirt and pants, while police bought 2,000. The price for each is 35,000 won ($30) or less, keeping the budget for the deal at around 410 million won.
The environment ministry has agreed to support all the recycling processes involving transparent plastic bottles as well as devise necessary policies. The textile industries federation agreed to encourage their member companies to use recycled materials more extensively.
“This is an exemplary case of how the central government and local companies can cooperate to strengthen the foundations for carbon neutralization,” said Environment Minister Han Jeoung-ae, who participated in a signing event at the Hotel President in downtown Seoul. “Our ministry will cooperate with other national organizations to build a stronger sustainable society with better recycling practices.”
About 12 500-milliliter plastic bottles or five 2-liter bottles are needed to make one short-sleeve T-shirt and 32 500-milliliter bottles for a long-sleeve shirt, according to the ministry.
| In the Sinsa area of Seoul's Eunpyeong District, residents separate their waste into recyclable materials, Feb. 5. Korea Times file |
The government has sought to boost the recycling of transparent plastic bottles by requiring apartment residents nationwide to separate them from colored plastic bottles when disposing of them. With the mandate effective from Dec. 25, 2020, all apartment complexes in the country were ordered to prepare separate trash bags for transparent plastic bottles.
The measure has proven effective, according to the Korea Resource Circulation Service Agency. During the first week of the new mandate, the country's top 15 recycling depots ― which take up 24 percent of the country's entire market for collecting and sorting recyclable waste ― reported that they collected 126 tons of transparent plastic bottles. Between Feb. 17 and 25, the figure jumped 75 percent to 221 tons.
The ministry has been keenly watching whether the new measure was being followed by management offices at apartment complexes. For over a month starting early January, the ministry and Korea Environment Corporation sent officials to 1,000 large-scale apartment complexes nationwide that altogether house some 1.7 million households ― 16 percent of the country's entire registered households ― to check how recyclables were being collected. All the inspected complexes were separating transparent plastic bottles for collection.
At the signing event, there was a display of how the plastic bottles were recycled to make something useful: from sorting and flattening the bottles to reduce their size, to grinding and cleansing, making them into pellets, producing threads out of the pellets and finally sewing the threads into clothes.
The event also showed how local clothing and wearable producers like The North Face, BLACK YAK and Pleats Mama recycled various plastic bottles to make their clothes, backpacks and shoes. Other companies that signed a business agreement last year with the environment ministry for promotion of their recycled products include Kolon Sport and Amorepacific.
In another session, hosted by the ministry and the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute, some innovative products made of recycled materials were introduced, including a protective pavement cast for trees planted along streets and a roof tile both made from recycled plastic bags. It also showcased how private developers can register their recycled products with the Public Procurement Service after passing an evaluation.
Minister Han said a revision to the Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources, set to come into force this month, will compel makers of recycled local products to show how much recycled materials were used in making them, while requiring local governments to purchase a certain amount of such products.