South Korea Consults on Revising the Recycling Symbols on Food Packing Materials

MOE (Ministry of Environment) carried out an online survey ^[1] about the necessity of optimizing the “separate-collection mark (recycling symbols)” on packing materials on July 27, 2020. The result showed that 72.3% of participants thought that amending the recycling symbol was essential, and 66.9% held the view that the current recycling symbol was unhelpful in recycling the packing materials. Therefore, MOE released the exposure draft of Standards of Labeling Quality and Structure of Packaging Material Grade and Recycling Symbols ^[2] to optimize the requirements on recycling symbols on September 10, 2020. Stakeholders can submit suggestions to MOE prior to September 30.

According to the draft, “rinse out before recycling,” “remove the labels," and other notes for dealing with the packs are labeled along with the recycling symbols. Besides, the symbol size is also to be enlarged from 8mm to 12mm for ease of viewing.

(Modifications to the Recycling Symbols: Double click to zoom in)

ChemLinked Note

The competent authority has emphasized to enhance the supervision on packing material recycling. As PET, plastics, glass, can, and paper packaging is widely used in the food industry, enterprises shall pay attention to the changes in recycling symbols once the regulation is enforced. 

Apart from this, food importers and manufacturers shall finish the application to evaluate packing material recyclability grade ^[3] before September 24, 2020 in line with the Resources Recycling Act.

In addition, this draft is to integrate the similar requirements of label recycling stated in Standards of Labeling Quality and Structure of Packaging Material Grade ^[4] and Guideline on Labeling Recycling Symbols ^[5]. After its implementation, the above mentioned two regulations will be repealed.

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