[Hwankyung Ilbo] The Seoul Environmental Federation released a report on the status of paper cartons collection by local governments in Seoul, which was conducted to establish a paper bag recycling system.

The report includes findings from a survey of 25 boroughs in Seoul, as well as additional research by calling the people in charge of collecting paper cartons in each borough.

The survey was conducted by the Seoul Environment Federation's Resource Recycling Team, and the total survey period is from July 18 to November 3, 2023.

There are two main types of cartons: regular cartons, which are commonly used as milk cartons, and sterilized cartons (tetrapacks), which have an aluminum coating. Regular cartons have a PE coating and sterilized cartons have a PE and aluminum coating, so they go through a different recycling process than paper.

In addition, if they are disposed of as paper, they interfere with the recycling of paper and require a separate collection and sorting system. However, the reality is that there is no system for collecting and sorting cartons at the doorstep, and the local government collects and sorts cartons separately.

According to the survey, 20 out of 25 districts in Seoul collect paper cartons through administrative welfare centers.

Of those, 14 boroughs collected both plain and sterilized cartons, 6 collected only plain cartons, and 5 collected neither.

In terms of sorting at borough sorting centers, three boroughs sorted plain and sterilized cartons separately, six boroughs sorted cartons without distinction, one borough sorted cartons at the request of the seller, four boroughs sorted cartons as "paper" without distinction, and 11 boroughs were unable to confirm.

In addition, there are 20 local governments that operate a collection reward system (a system that rewards people for collecting and delivering paper cartons), and 17 of them include toilet paper among the items in the collection reward system, and 3 of them provide recycled toilet paper.

We found an anomaly in the case of 15 boroughs that forwarded their collected cartons to Vendor A. Vendor A was providing the boroughs with toilet paper as a reward for collecting the cartons, which was made from new pulp.

However, the borough was mistakenly assuming that the toilet paper they received from Vendor A was made from recycled pulp.

We checked, and Vendor A responded that they were concerned about claims of inferior quality if they provided recycled toilet paper, so they provide paper made from new pulp.

In order for paper carton recycling to scale up, the demand for products made from recycled paper cartons must increase.

In order to increase the demand for recycled products, Article 6 of the Act on the Promotion of Green Product Purchasing states that "the head of a public institution shall purchase green products if he/she wishes to purchase goods." The law specifies the obligation of public institutions to purchase green products.

However, the reality was that many boroughs were not offering recycled toilet paper as a collection reward, even though they were obligated to do so. This meant that when citizens collected paper cartons for recycling, they were only using toilet paper made from new pulp, which did not lead to the purchase of recycled toilet paper.

The recycling rate for paper cartons has been declining year after year. From a high of 35% in 2013, the recycling rate for cartons dropped to 26% in 2014, 19% in 2019, 15.8% in 2020, 13.9% in 2021, and 13.7% in 2022.

This is because, as shown in the above survey, the paper bag recycling system is not in place, and the sale of recycled products to public institutions is not in place.

From January 1, 2024, sterilization packs will be labeled as "difficult to recycle. It is pointed out that labeling sterilization packs as difficult to recycle when public institutions are not fulfilling their obligations will only discourage citizens from recycling sterilization packs, making it more difficult to recycle sterilization packs.

In order to increase the recycling rate of paper cartons, the Seoul Environmental Federation said that the government should establish a system where paper cartons can be collected, sorted, and recycled just like cans and bottles; expand public purchases of recycled toilet paper through a reward system for collecting paper cartons at administrative welfare centers; and focus on establishing a recycling system before labeling sterilization packs as difficult to recycle.

The Report on the Status of Paper Bag Collection by Local Governments in Seoul is available on the Seoul Environment Federation website. Starting with this report, the Seoul Environment Federation will continue its activities to establish a paper carton recycling system.

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