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| Consumers choose Chuseok gift sets from the shelves via a brochure at NH Hanaro Mart's Yangjae outlet in southern Seoul, Sept. 2. Yonhap |
Companies beginning to adopt more recyclable packaging
By Lee Hae-rin
Kim Ji-seon, 28, said that she feels guilty whenever she sees the huge amount of packaging materials in the gift sets that she receives for the two biggest holidays here, Chuseok and the Lunar New Year. Almost all of the packaging is plastic, while some of it is made of several different materials combined together, so that she can't even separate them into recyclable categories.
"I always thought the plastic packaging in these sets was bigger than the gifts themselves," she said.
Kim is not the only consumer who feels uncomfortable with the plastic waste they have to dump when receiving holiday gift sets. Such growing consumer demands for eco-friendly options have been leading to the reduction of plastic packaging in holiday gift sets here.
For this Chuseok holiday, CJ CheilJedang provided 90 percent of its gift sets of the canned ham, Spam, one of the most popular holiday gifts here, without the yellow plastic caps on the cans. It also replaced polypropylene bags with paper ones. In these ways, the company reduced the use of plastic by 467 tons, compared to last year's holiday season.
Chungjungone and Lotte Foods reduced their packaging volumes and switched to recyclable packaging, and Lotte Foods believes that its efforts have reduced the use of plastic by 37 tons compared to last year. Dongwon F&B took a similar initiative in its all-paper gift sets.
One reason behind these companies' eco-friendly shift is government regulations on excessive packaging. However, the greatest driving force behind these eco-friendly initiatives is consumers' growing demand for plastic-free and recyclable packaging in holiday gift sets.
In a 2018 survey by the Green Consumer Network in Korea, 64 percent of 1,000 respondents said that they were uncomfortable with the excessive packaging.
In another survey by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry this May, 63 percent of 300 respondents said companies' environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) activities affect their consumer choices. More than 88 percent said that they are willing to pay more for products made by companies that practice ESG principles well. Regarding environmental factors, 36.7 percent, or the largest percentage of the respondents, said that companies need to pay attention to ecosystem pollution caused by the excessive use of plastics.
"As a consumer, I am glad to see companies reflecting consumers' demands for eco-friendliness, and providing such options," Kim said.
She said that companies have a profound influence on consumer choice and should take the lead in reducing plastic waste. "I want to see and choose from plastic-free and eco-friendly options when I make my future spending decisions, without having to try so hard."
Companies' eco-friendly initiatives should be welcomed, but the reduction of plastic produced during this holiday season remains insignificant compared to the annual amount of plastic produced overall, said John Yum, a plastic campaign activist at Greenpeace Korea.
"It is important that companies don't leave this simply as a temporary marketing strategy, but rather work on a long-term solution to deal with plastic waste. The statistics on industrial plastic production should be open and transparent, and companies must fundamentally change the industrial system," the activist said.
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