Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Lotte, Coca-Cola, Haitai identified as top plastic polluters
A view of plastic bottles and other garbage floating along the seashore in this file photo. Lotte, Coca-Cola and Haitai have found to be the most polluting brands in an inspection of plastic trash conducted by a civic environmental organization. Korea Times file
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Lotte, Coca-Cola and Haitai have been found to be the most polluting brands in an inspection of plastic trash conducted by a civic environmental organization. The retail giant, Lotte, was responsible for more plastic litter than the next top two polluters combined.
The Korea Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) said Thursday that it collected plastic waste including bottles, cups, wrappers, and bags in 13 regions across the country with 215 volunteers on May 31. The volunteers individually picked up litter in the region they were living in for two hours on the day, and sorted it into various categories including plastic cups, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, plastic wrapping, glass bottles, disposable masks, cigarette butts, plastic packing material, and straws among other waste products.
Among 12,055 pieces of litter collected, Lotte was responsible for 193 items. The next biggest contributor to the plastic pollution in the inspection was Coca-Cola with 70 pieces, followed by Haitai with 48.
Lotte not only occupies the top spot in the domestic beverage brand market with Lotte Chilsung Beverage, but also produces various products under its Lotte Confectionery and Lotte Samgang brands, which generate a lot of plastic waste.
In the case of plastic and canned containers, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Coca Cola topped the list, while Lotte Confectionery and Lotte Samgang ranked the first on the list in various small package products.
Haitai ranked fourth in plastic wraps, sixth in plastic containers and ninth in aluminum cans.
The most collected waste item was cigarette butts. Of the total 6,488 butts collected, 5,768 or 89 percent were found in the city area, 511 on seashores, 108 in mountains, and 99 in rural areas. Cigarette butts should be disposed of as regular waste by classification, but are often simply discarded by smokers. Cigarette butts contains microplastics along with various chemicals, which, if not disposed of properly, flow into the sea affecting marine ecosystems, and eventually return to humans via the food chain, the organization said.
“Based on the results of this inspection, we will require the top 20 companies who items make up the plastic trash to take measures to reduce the amount generated from their production stage. In addition, the KFEM will continue to monitor social responsibility for plastic waste from the companies and demand voluntary reductions,” KFEM activist Baek Na-yoon said.