People look around winter clothes at a department store in Seoul on Nov. 22, 2021, as the mercury is forecast to hit below zero in the coming days. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — The government is reviewing the idea of imposing recycling obligations on clothing companies.
The Ministry of Environment said Sunday that it recently outsourced a study on the so-called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a legislative strategy used by many developed countries to encourage manufacturers to design environmentally friendly products.
In the outsourcing proposal, the ministry asked for a review of the feasibility of re-introducing the EPR system for waste clothes and textiles and to present a guide on future policy direction.
The system, designed to obligate producers to recycle a specific amount of waste and packaging materials and to levy a penalty if they fail to fulfill the obligations, took effect in January 2003.
The ministry cited the European Union (EU)’s latest decision to strongly regulate fast fashion as the impetus for reviewing the application of the EPR system for clothes and textiles.
The volume of waste clothes generated across the country in 2020 stood at about 82,422 tons, or 225 tons a day, with the volume of waste textiles estimated at 27,083 tons.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
