Consumers don't buy into South Korea's restrictions on disposable cups
A notice banning the use of disposable cups at a cafe in Seoul.
People's Net Seoul, August 6, 420 plastic bags, 98 kilograms of plastic, which is disposable goods consumed per capita in South Korea a year. In order to reduce the consumption of disposable products, from this month, the South Korean government has centralized control over the abuse of disposable plastic cups in coffee shops and fast food restaurants, and illegal shops will face a fine of less than 2 million won (about 12,000 yuan).
A cup of coffee after dinner is the daily life of the Korean people, five steps a coffee shop, a meal will be crowded; In the streets, office workers with disposable coffee cups can be seen everywhere. According to Asian Economic Reports, the coffee market in South Korea, the "republic of coffee", was worth 11.7 trillion won (71.23 billion yuan) last year, more than three times the size of a decade ago, with 26 billion disposable coffee cups consumed annually. According to Statistics Korea, South Korea consumed 98.2 kg of plastic per capita in 2016, more than developed countries such as the United States (97.7kg), France (73kg) and Japan (66.9kg).
In order to improve the excessive consumption of disposable products, in April this year, the South Korean government announced the "Comprehensive Measures for waste recycling management", aiming to reduce the use of disposable cups and plastic bags by 35% by 2022, and reduce plastic waste by half by 2030. Limiting the use of single-use cups is the first step in this comprehensive strategy. According to KBS television, the ministry of Environmental Protection signed a voluntary agreement with 16 coffee and five fast food brands to impose fines of up to 2 million won (about 12,000 yuan), depending on the size of the cafe or fast food restaurant and the number of times it is violated, starting August 2.
Despite the government's intention to crack down, consumers don't seem to be buying it. According to Yonhap news agency, a random check of six well-known cafes in downtown Seoul on the day of the decree showed that most customers still chose to use disposable cups, and the use of glasses and mugs was not satisfactory. A survey released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection also showed that only 44.3 percent of all cafes advocate the use of mugs, especially international brand chains such as KFC and Popeye fried Chicken.
A cafe service staff said that there are certain difficulties in the implementation of the policy, "some customers strongly require the use of disposable cups, we reluctantly persuade but cause customer dissatisfaction. I hope the relevant departments will consider these issues and provide more specific guidelines or rules." Some netizens believe that the most important thing to reduce the use of disposable cups is to change consumers' awareness of environmental protection. What's wrong with coffee shops? (Intern Wu Yiying Li Xingyue)
(Editor: Shen Yuhuan, Li Meiyu)