This image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows a plastic cup with coffee.
SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – The Jung district office in the port city of Busan announced on Tuesday that it will re-launch a program that encourages participants to exchange disposable take-out cups for standard plastic garbage bags.
This move is a part of efforts to promote recycling under circumstances in which the use of disposable cups has increased sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under this program, the district office will give a package of 10-liter standard plastic garbage bags to residents on a once-a-week basis if they bring in 50 paper cups or 30 plastic cups after washing and drying them.
The district office started the program to exchange disposable plastic cups for standard plastic garbage bags in 2020.
Since the program was popular among local residents, the district office decided to expand the program to include take-out paper cups.
Ordinary citizens tend to think that the disposable take-out cups used at coffee shops are 100 percent recyclable.
However, since they are made of different materials and recyclability is different from cup to cup, it’s virtually impossible to recycle them if they are mixed with other plastics.
Collecting and processing them separately from other types of plastics can greatly increase their recycling rate.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
