South Korea has unveiled a roadmap to cut plastic waste by more than 30 per cent by 2030, but the plan immediately met backlash from environmental and civic groups who said it failed to address plastic production at its source.
The country’s household and commercial plastic waste, which stood at 7.71 million tonnes in 2023, was projected to rise to 10.12 million tonnes by 2030 without intervention, according to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.
The government plans to cut that figure to around 7 million tonnes by 2030 by reducing plastic use by 1 million tonnes and expanding recycled feedstock by 2 million tonnes, the ministry said.
Measures include the phased increase of a waste levy on plastic products, which has been frozen at KRW 150 (US$0.11) per kilogram since 2012, to better reflect actual disposal costs and industry output. The ministry said the levy in the European Union stands at about KRW 600 (US$0.42) per kilogram, though it did not plan to match that level.
Products made with recycled materials would be eligible for reduced or exempted levies, while single-use items with higher disposal burdens could face higher rates, the ministry said.
The government also plans to introduce a so-called “separate cup pricing” scheme from next year, under which receipts for drinks would itemise the cost of disposable cups, typically around KRW 200 (US$0.14), instead of bundling it into beverage prices.
The ministry said clearly displaying the cost of disposable cups would encourage consumers to switch to reusable alternatives, adding that the scheme would not raise drink prices since the cost was already included.
Other measures include restricting plastic straws to request-only use, promoting reusable containers at funeral halls, standardising delivery container thickness and materials, and limiting excessive packaging in parcel deliveries.
The government also plans to tighten mandates on recycled content in plastic bottles, requiring large producers to use at least 10 per cent recycled material by 2026 and 30 per cent by 2030, and to introduce a Korean version of eco-design standards covering product design from the manufacturing stage.
The ministry said it would finalise the policy after gathering public feedback and consultations with industry and other ministries early next year.
“Based on this comprehensive anti-plastic plan made together with the public, we will help South Korea leap forward as a leading nation of a sustainable circular green civilisation,” the climate minister Kim Sung-hwan said.
However, environmental and civic groups criticised the roadmap as “inadequate”, saying it relied too heavily on recycling and technological fixes while ignoring the need to curb plastic production itself.
Eight groups, including Greenpeace, argued that less than 10 per cent of plastics were actually recycled and that hazardous substances such as plasticisers and flame retardants continued to circulate through recycling systems.
They said subsidies, financial support and tax benefits for fossil fuel and petrochemical industries had entrenched an economic structure that favoured plastic production, warning that global plastic output was already at historic highs and could triple by 2050.
The groups urged the government to include clear targets and timelines for cutting plastic production, shift policy away from recycling-centred approaches toward reuse and reduction, and ensure meaningful civil society participation throughout the policy’s implementation.
South Korea’s new measures mark its latest efforts to build a sustainable circular plastics economy.
The government announced earlier this month that it will prohibit manufacturers and retailers from attaching labels to bottled drinking water from 1 January in a move expected to reduce plastic use by more than 2,200 tonnes a year.
The country produced 5.2 billion bottles of drinking water last year, and about 65 per cent of products are already sold without labels. Seoul said uptake has grown rapidly since 2020, when label-free packaging was first permitted. The market for bottled water reached KRW 3.2 trillion (US$2.17 billion) last year, expanding at an average of 13.5 per cent annually over the past five years.
The climate ministry said the shift to label-free packaging will require consumers to access product information through QR codes printed on bottle caps. Multi-pack products will display information on outer wrapping or carrying handles.
A one-year transition period will apply to single bottles sold in shops, after small retailers raised concerns over the lack of point-of-sale systems capable of scanning QR codes.
