This combination of photos shows disposable paper and plastic cups used at cafe or fast-food restaurants. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A new disposable cup deposit system will enter effect for coffee shops, bakeries and fast food outlets across the country at the beginning of June. Nonetheless, controversy remains unabated.
At present, many businesses subject to the new deposit program are concerned about how to prepare for the rollout.
Thanks to the lifting of social distancing rules, they are busy with more customers. Under such circumstances, they also have to pay extra care for the treatment of disposable cups.
Companies will have to keep returned disposable cups separately and manage them by attaching barcode stickers.
Some complained that it’s not fair to exclude convenience stores from the new disposable cup program considering that they sell coffee in disposable containers like plastic or paper cups.
The nation’s big three convenience store chains sold 443 million cups of coffee last year.
Some claimed that if convenience stores were also forced to use the deposit system, it would be easier to achieve one of the system’s primary objectives, easy collection.
Under the disposable cup deposit system, customers will be able to return used disposable cups to any store regardless of whether they were purchased there or not. This is primarily to promote the convenience of collection.
Some stressed that given that the convenience store industry runs more than 40,000 outlets across the country, it could contribute to enhancing both the rate and convenience of collection.
However, there are also some opposing views, pointing out that unlike coffee shops and fast food restaurants, convenience stores have no space to wash cups and most of them are owner-operated and staffed by only a single employee at a time.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
