This photo provided by Yonhap News TV shows a a recyclable waste center in Seoul.
SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — With less goods being transported, decreasing cardboard production is pulling down demand for waste paper in and out of South Korea.
The Korea Paper Association reported that South Korea’s cardboard production dropped from 511,412 tons in December last year to 478,083 tons in July of this year.
Cardboard is used to make container boxes for all kinds of products, so its supply and demand reflect the country’s economic index.
Waste paper that is thrown away by households or businesses is collected by a waste processing facility and compressed into smaller sizes. Then, it is either sold to paper production plants or exported overseas.
The Ministry of Environment reported that South Korea’s paper production companies were storing 148,000 tons of waste paper as of September, which is twice the average storage amount.
As waste paper continues to pile up, prices are going downhill. The national average price of waste paper per kilogram dropped from 149 won in January to 108 won in September.
The price of exports has also gone down from US$242 per ton in September of last year to $129 in September of this year, raising concerns that waste processing facilities may refuse to accept additional waste paper as their storage capacity reaches its limit.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
