South Korea to Place Restrictions on Mixed Paper and PET Bottle Imports

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The South Korean government announced plans to impose restrictions on imports of mixed paper and PET bottles into the country. The government ministry is currently working on proposals to this effect.

Earlier in mid-February this year, the South Korean Ministry of Environment had published a general policy on reducing waste paper imports. Although the details of the release are not known yet, trade participants fear that the country is likely to impose 100% inspection requirement on imported loads. The proposal will also bring in more restrictions on import of the material.

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Recently, the country’s government had communicated to domestic paper mills regarding the upcoming restrictions. Although it announced that all recovered paper imports would have to go through strict inspection procedures, the policy has not been implemented until now. The government had expressed deep concerns with the high contamination levels in mixed paper containers.

Meantime, RISI noted that the government is considering imposition of contamination limit of 0.5% on mixed paper imports.

In a similar press release, the Environment Ministry suggested that the government intends to target imports of PET bottles, by promoting domestic collection and recycling of plastic bottles through a separate collection system.