<Anchor> This is a



friendly economic time. Today (11th), I will be with reporter Kim Hye-min. Reporter Kim Today, the number of new corona cases has already exceeded 2,000. However, as the supply of vaccines is slightly disrupted, it seems that the number of confirmed cases will not decrease in a short period of time. But since I've been at home for a long time, the amount of garbage also increased. This seems to be the problem.



<Reporter>



That's right. As the COVID-19 outbreak continues for a long time, the amount of waste is also increasing.



As more and more people are concerned about the environment, the 'Zero Waste' movement, which reduces the use of disposable products and minimizes waste, or the 'Container Challenge', in which food is packaged in an airtight container, is popular.



However, it is difficult to prevent plastic containers from coming out when food delivery is unavoidable.



There are a lot of people who want to separate discharge well, but do not know how to do this.



Among these, emptying the contents, rinsing thoroughly with water, and washing are the most important. It is said that the amount of waste that is disposed of without washing and returned to general waste is considerable.



<Anchor>



By the way, if you look at it, Korea says that this kind of separate discharge, that is, to put it simply, separate collection of recyclables and dispose of waste is called separate discharge. They say they do a really good job of separating them. By the way, you said that there are many cases of separating and disposing of waste and disposing of it again as garbage?



<Reporter>



That's right. This is because most of them do not dispose of or wash food properly, but the actual recycling rate of recyclables separated and discharged in Korea remains in the 40% range.



Comparing with Japan, it is 80% in Japan, but we only have half of this.



In addition, transparent plastic bottles are the easiest to reuse among plastic waste. Since the recycling rate has been low, Korea has continued to import and use waste PET bottles.



Many people know that plastic bottles now have to be thrown away after separating labels. If it is cumbersome to remove labels one by one, it is much more convenient to purchase a label-free beverage from the beginning.



Also, there are cup ramen containers that leave red marks even after washing. These colors disappear after rinsing the container with water and drying it in the sun. If it is still not erased, then you have to throw it away in the pay-as-you-go bag.



<Anchor> As



I just explained, we are working hard to separate waste, but this is difficult. I don't know if this is recyclable or not. I wonder what else to do with toothbrushes and cookie bags.



<Reporter>



Surprisingly, toothbrushes are non-recyclable items. The brush head and body material are different, so they cannot be recycled. There are other products that are likely to be recycled but are not.



Rubber gloves, silicone products, cell phone cases, toys, and cassette tapes should also be disposed of in the volume-based bag.



The weather is hot these days, so you use a lot of ice packs. If the contents say water, open the pack, discard only the water, and put out the pack in plastic.



If it is not water, you must dispose of it entirely in the volume-based system. It is said that the material inside is microplastic, so if it flows into the sea, it can threaten marine life.



Also, confectionery bags and ramen bags are a bit unusual. It is difficult to recycle together with other plastics, but energy can be recycled by collecting and incinerating them. If it gets dirty, wash it off and dispose of it with vinyl.



<Anchor>



Reporter Kim And one last question. You seem to drink a lot of coffee capsules while you are at home these days, but there are capsule coffees out there. that plastic bottle. Is it recycled?



<Reporter>



This capsule coffee is actually easy, so many people drink it these days. When the Consumer Agency did a research on 21 coffee capsules, all of these containers were made of recyclable aluminum or plastic.



To recycle, you have to remove the lid of the container and remove the coffee grounds before putting it out, but most containers are sealed. So it was impossible to separate it.



In fact, when we surveyed capsule coffee consumers, less than half of the people who separate the capsule container according to the material were discharged.



And even if the consumer separates the container and disposes it as recyclable waste, the material is not marked, so it is highly likely to be classified as general waste in the process of disposing of it.



Overseas, most of the vendors are operating a 'recovery program' that collects and recycles capsule containers for free.



In Korea, more companies should introduce this program. In addition, we need to change the container to make it easier to separate and dispose of it.