This Sept. 24, 2020, photo shows waste piled up at a city-run recycling center in the southwestern port city of Busan. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — An international environmental group gave a low score to the South Korean food industry’s efforts in dealing with plastic.
The Seoul branch of Greenpeace published a report on Tuesday that analyzed the efforts of the country’s five major food companies — CJ Cheiljedang Corp., Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co., Ottogi Co., Nongshim Co. and Dongwon F&B Co. — in dealing with plastic materials.
The report scored each of the company’s efforts based on various press releases and company statements, assessing them through four categories including reduction, transparency, innovation, and policy.
The report showed that CJ Cheiljedang, Ottogi, Nongshim, and Lotte Chilsung Beverage received a D and Dongwon F&B received an F.
Greenpeace said that while all of the companies talked about their efforts to partially reduce the use of plastic, the actual amount of reduction in proportion to the total amount of production fell short of more or less 5 percent on average.
These companies have also failed to propose a long-term roadmap for plastic reduction and resorted to unproductive responses when asked about disclosing the amount of plastic they use.
Greenpeace called upon the food producers to disclose externally audited information about the use of plastic once a year and set up a recycling system with the government or distribution companies.
The agency also asked each food producer to set a yearly objective for plastic reduction as well as a long-term roadmap.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
