People purchase groceries at a large discount store in Seoul in this file photo taken on Dec. 11, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Large discount stores saw the use of plastic bags decline sharply after they removed ‘inner plastic bags’ that are used to re-pack items that are already packaged, the environment ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry signed an agreement with the nation’s five major discount store chains to restrict the use of inner plastic bags that were being used to re-pack various food items in 2018.
Since then, the use of plastic bags at discount stores has declined by 70.8 percent from 1,596 tons in 2017 to 466 tons last year.
Without plastic bags easily at hand at discount stores, their use dropped significantly.
Even now, however, such plastic bags are only used for items such as meat, fish, fruits and vegetables.
This year marked the third time that the government issued an aggressive regulation on disposable items following similar actions in 2003 and 2018.
The amount of waste plastic generated by South Koreans in daily life rose by 17.7 percent from 4.18 million tons in 2019 to 4.92 million tons last year.
Just like the case of the inner plastic packaging bags, the ministry plans to reduce the amount of waste plastic generation itself through regulations on disposable items.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
