![\"Plastic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/08e4f024-c2ee-4ba4-96e4-9cb63dee2a18.jpg\")
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Plastic bottles compressed into bales and ready for recycling in this undated photo \/ gettyimagesbank<\/p>\n
As the war in Iran is disrupting Korea’s imports of naphtha and other oil products, the nation is grappling with public concerns over a shortage of plastic waste bags, prompting President Lee Jae Myung on March 25 to order the government to find ways to replace imported oils with renewable materials in producing such bags.<\/p>\n
However, the goal appears far-fetched, according to a National Assembly report, as current laws on plastic recycling remain technically immature and fall short of global standards.<\/p>\n
A report by the National Assembly Research Service, published last week, examined the European Union\u2019s revised Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) adopted in February and compared it with similar Korean laws as it highlighted legal loopholes in the latter.<\/p>\n
The report not only warned that accomplishing the president’s order is unlikely under current laws but also of the impact of Europe’s tightening environmental regulations to Korea\u2019s future exports.<\/p>\n
The report pointed to the \u201ctechnically uncertain\u201d descriptions under Korea’s Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources as among the biggest problems under the law as it can misguide local companies willing to recycle. Wasted PET bottles, one of the most effective renewable resources, even have parts like cap, lead, label, sleeve and body, each of which needs a distinguished recycling method. However, Korean laws do not support this reality.<\/p>\n
The calculation of \u201cmass balance,\u201d which measures how much of each product is actually recycled, is also left unregulated under Korean laws.<\/p>\n
Kim Kyoung-min, a legislative researcher who authored the report, said such legal loopholes discourage companies here from investing in recycling technologies such as chemical recycling, an advanced method that can handle hard-to-recycle waste.<\/p>\n
Mixed bales also require separate legal restraints from individually collected plastics, according to Kim, because they are more contaminated and more likely to remain unclean and unusable even after sorting and cleansing. Korean laws currently allow mixed bales to be treated equally with individually collected wastes.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ba351ef0-6048-4525-964b-6267fe176964.jpg\")
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A customer at a superstore in Seoul uses a government-approved standard waste bag to pack her grocery items, Sunday. Yonhap<\/p>\n
Kim also pointed out that the laws do not mention imported renewable materials and pondered whether their qualities meet Korea\u2019s environmental standards. She said the loophole could allow the importation of low-quality renewable materials and shrink domestic market shares for local firms here.<\/p>\n
Lastly, she warned that under current laws, Korean firms will not be able to export products using recycled plastics to Europe under the revised SUPD. Kim said it will pose a barrier not only to Korean food and beverage firms using recycled PET bottles (rPET) for their products but also to those exporting renewable materials to their European partner firms.<\/p>\n
Kim underscored the need to revise current Korean laws, adding that it is also important for companies that recycle materials here to indicate recycle-related data to consumers transparently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key problem is that neither the National Assembly nor the government has preemptively introduced the recycling laws with necessary details. This should have come before the companies and consumers here raise questions regarding the issue,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs to the Korean exporters to Europe, whether they agree or not with the intensifying regulatory movements in Europe is not important. They simply won\u2019t be able to enter the market. Such is the power of being respectful to regulations. The companies, however, will eventually conform to the changing environment. If the markets shift, so do the companies, naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The revised SUPD, adopted by the EU Waste Technical Adaptation Committee in February this year, has included chemical recycling practices including pyrolysis, gasification and dissolution in its official rulebook to promote the production of renewable materials. <\/p>\n
It has also introduced more stringent mass balance requirements by distinguishing fuel consumption from the actual recycling process to exclude the former from renewable material calculations and promote transparency. It has also excluded rPET imported from outside EU states from being acknowledged as recycled portions until Nov. 21, 2027 to protect EU companies. <\/p>\n
The SUPD has also earlier enforced the use of at least 25 percent renewable materials in each PET bottle and at least 30 percent starting 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plastic bottles compressed into bales and ready for recycling in this undated photo \/ gettyimagesbank As the war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-514076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}