Recycling Dispute

[Anchor Lead]

The Korean government has revised laws to promote recycling in a more efficient way as piling trash has become a serious social issue. However, controversy still remains over what to do with labels on plastic bottles.

[Pkg]

Labels on plastic bottles must be removed in order to recycle them. The Ministry of Environment has decided to encourage the use of the water immersion method to remove labels on plastic bottles by soaking them in water. But some manufacturers and civic groups are calling for the use of dotted-line labels. They can be easily removed by hand and are not attached using any industrial adhesives. The key point is the current state of recycling methods and technologies. Plastic bottles that are translucent and pure are sold for the highest price. Therefore, the main focus is on how well the bottles are washed during recycling and whether their labels have been removed properly. Currently, the so-called gravity concentration method is regarded as the most practical and efficient. Plastic bottles sink in water because their specific gravity is greater than one and their labels come up to the water surface. This method is suitable for the labels currently used on bottles, which are attached using adhesives and are buoyant in water. By contrast, the gravity concentration method is not right for dotted-line labels, as they are made of materials whose specific gravity is greater than one. Some say that the use of caustic soda to remove adhesives can pollute water. However, that's not true.

[Soundbite] Hong Soo-yeol(Resource Circulation Research Center) : "Caustic soda is not used because of adhesives. It is used to remove impurities in plastic bottles."

For this reason, the United States, Europe and Japan use washing and gravity separation methods together.