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Now, when recycling plastic waste, even PET bottles that have been separately collected are not recycled as 'food containers'. From next year, the so-called 'bottle-to-bottle' method of recycling plastic bottles containing bottled water or beverages is introduced in Korea by crushing them, washing them, and turning them into beverage bottles again.



Plastic can be used over and over again, and the details were covered exclusively by environmental reporter Jang Se-man.



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Coca-Cola of the United States is one of the food companies that use the most plastic in the world.



By 2030, 50% of the raw materials for PET bottles will be recycled.



French bottled water company Evian also makes 100% of its bottled water from recycled containers after 4 years.



The European Union has committed to increasing the share of recycled raw materials in the manufacture of plastic bottles by at least 30% by 2030.



There is a reason 'bottle-to-bottle' recycling is being introduced one after another.



Recycling of existing PET bottles is used once as low-value-added raw materials such as non-woven fabrics and stuffed cotton, and then thrown away as garbage.



Recycling is right, but not sustainable.




On the other hand, the 'bottle-to-bottle' method can be used as many times as the original value is repeated, enabling practical resource circulation.



Currently, in the European market, recycled PET raw materials for food are traded at more than 30% higher prices than low-grade raw materials.



[Flood Suyeol/Director of Resource Circulation Economy Research Institute: (Pet bottles) are recycled into textiles and then disposed of as garbage.

It's called 'down cycling'.

The waste problem will be solved only by creating an infinite repeating structure that circulates PET bottles back to PET bottles.]



This 'bottle-to-bottle' method of recycling will start next year in Korea as well.



The Ministry of Environment confirmed the announcement stipulating the quality standards of raw materials and equipment standards of related companies and made an administrative notice last week.



In the meantime, the stumbling block has been safety and hygiene issues.



What if a PET bottle containing pesticides is ever used for food?



For this reason, the Ministry of Environment started a separate discharge system for transparent PET from the end of last year.



Since a clean waste PET collection network has been established, only the PET bottles secured here will be used for food.



However, since the average monthly collection amount is only 1,000 tons until the first year of the implementation of separate emission, government support is urgently needed to increase the collection amount.



(Video editing: Lee Hong-myeong, CG: Uhm So-min)