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A recycling site at an apartment complex. (provided by the Ministry of Environment)

Transparent plastic bottles will have to be separately disposed of in Seoul, Busan, and six other regions of South Korea as of this month.

The Ministry of Environment (MOE) announced on Feb. 5 that it is implementing a pilot effort for the separate disposal of transparent plastic bottles starting this month. Five of the regions -- Busan, Cheonan (South Chungcheong Province), Gimhae (South Gyeongsang Province), Jeju, and Seogwipo -- began implementing separate disposal early this month.

In the case of Seoul, the system is to be first adopted in the districts of Nowon, Dobong, and Seongbuk before being expanded to all 25 districts according to their level of preparations. Separate containers exclusively for transparent plastic bottles are to be established at apartments and other shared residences, while bags specifically for containing and disposing of waste plastic bottles are to be distributed for detached houses. In the case of shared residences for Seoul, Busan, and the other reasons, transparent plastic bottles may be disposed of in separate containers at any time; for detached houses, disposal dates differ by region.

Also being adopted is a plastic bottle collection system utilizing the logistics networks of private businesses. When purchasers request bottle collection at the time of ordering water and other bottled beverages online, the seller is to collect the waste bottles while delivering new items.

Transparent plastic bottles are chiefly used to produce fiber materials for garments -- a prominent example being polar fleece, a polyester material that has recently been enjoying a rise in popularity. But the intermixture of foreign matter in the waste bottles collected in South Korea during the disposal and collection process poses issues with their use as a recycled material.

For this reason, 22,000 tons of plastic bottles have been imported each year from countries such as Japan and Taiwan for the production of recycled textiles.

By Choi Ye-rin, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]