South Korea requires firms to use recycled plastic in drink bottles from 2026 but concerns remain
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The legislation covers bottled water and non-alcoholic beverage producers that use more than 5,000 tonnes of PET bottles a year.
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SEOUL – The South Korean government decided at a Cabinet meeting on Sept 16 to require bottled water and non-alcoholic beverage producers to use recycled plastic in packaging from 2026, its Environment Ministry said.
According to the Environment Ministry, the new law requires that at least 10 per cent of the polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, used in bottles must come from recycled sources.
The legislation covers bottled water and non-alcoholic beverage producers that use more than 5,000 tonnes of PET bottles a year.
Out of roughly 200 beverage producers nationwide, the new rule applies to 10 major companies, including Coca-Cola Korea, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Jeju Development Corp, which produces mineral water brand Samdasoo.
These companies must meet the new mandate from Jan 1, 2026.
So far, the obligation to use recycled content has applied only to plastic producers, leaving beverage companies exempt. This meant that while Korea collected and processed large volumes of used PET bottles, bottling firms had no requirement to purchase recycled material for food-grade packaging.
As a result, no “bottle-to-bottle” recycling system was established to reduce plastic waste, carbon emissions and reliance on unrecycled plastics.
In Korea, the push for “bottle-to-bottle” recycling has long stalled over safety concerns.
Food-grade PET requires strict controls to prevent chemical migration or contamination, but recycled plastics often vary in purity depending on what they are made from and how they are processed. Companies also fear that recycled plastics could affect taste, smell or clarity.
Addressing such concerns, an Environment Ministry official told The Korea Herald that governmental research confirmed that even coloured PET bottles are safe for food use if processed under recycling standards jointly developed by the ministry and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
“Recycled PET bottles may not always appear completely transparent, but there is no issue with their quality,” the official said.
The standard recycling process refers to government-approved steps such as sorting, cleaning, shredding and re-melting PET bottles into pellets, followed by safety tests to ensure no harmful substances migrate into the drinks.
Meanwhile, Seoul began supplying its bottled tap water brand Arisu in containers made with recycled plastic in April 2023.
The ministry added that the new mandate aligns with international trends.
“The European Union and Germany currently aim to raise the mandatory recycled content in PET bottles to 30 per cent by 2030, while the United Kingdom plans to reach the same target by 2026,” the ministry said through a press release.
The ministry added that the mandate will gradually expand to cover more companies, eventually reaching those that produce more than 1,000 tonnes of PET bottles annually in the next few years.
By 2030, the ministry also aims to raise the recycled content requirement to 30 per cent, up from the initial 10 per cent. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
