Recycle Transparent PET Bottles Separately Starting from December!

When people purchase products, they consider many different aspects like designs, quality, price, etc. As climate change and environmental issues have become huge concerns, it has been influencing people’s purchasing decision and companies’ manufacturing process. Particularly, a lot beverage companies in Korea announced to switch their drink bottles to transparent PET bottles for reducing environmental impacts. Furthermore, they are going green by manufacturing ‘label-free’ products despite the fact that it could lower the exposure of brand image. 

As more companies are expected to replace color PET bottles to transparent PET bottles, the importance of recycling transparent bottles should be highlighted.

Starting December 25, 2021, Separation and disposal of transparent PET bottles will be enforced nationwide. Once it becomes mandatory to recycle transparent PET bottles separately, people should not throw the bottles into regular plastic bins. Then why is it important to separate transparent PET bottles from those with colors, when they are both plastic?

That is because, transparent PET bottle is the most useful plastic among many different types of plastics. Compared to other PET bottles, transparent PET bottles can be used in more diverse areas, such as making clothes. In fact, according to the Ministry of Environment, a regular t-shirt can be made with 12 transparent PET bottles(500ml), and a long-sleeve jacket can be manufactured with 32 bottles. 

Next, let’s take a look at how to separate and dispose of transparent PET bottles with labels. First, clean out the inside and remove the label. Then, press the bottle as much as possible, close the lid, and dispose it in the ‘transparent PET bottle recycling bin.’ If the separated bin is not yet prepared in your area, dispose of transparent PET bottles in the colored PET recycling bin, but try to keep them in one place.