South Korea and the World Urges to Cut Plastic

Article Written By: Jiah Hyun

As people are becoming more conscious of the environment at both the individual and social levels, single-use items, especially ones made of plastic has become a significant concern around the world. South Korea has finally joined the growing list of countries attempting to curb their use of disposable plastic. South Korea’s Ministry of Environment announced a plan to produce zero waste in stores by 2027 and this started with reducing plastic.

On 2018, major cafes in South Korea cut the use of plastic cups and eliminated plastic straws on a trial basis as the South Korean government pushed shops to use fewer disposable items. Cafes are no longer allowed to provide plastic cups except for those taking drinks to go, and for alternatives of plastic straws, the shops started providing paper straws. People first experiencing the paper straws stated that it is weird but necessary for our environment.

Paper Straws being Introduced in Starbucks

Starting from this year, the Ministry of Environment claimed that major supermarkets such as Lotte Mart and E-Marts are banned from using plastic bags. Shops are required to provide customers with plastic bags, multiple use cloth shopping bags or recyclable containers and offending companies will be fined up to 3 million won.

Dozens of countries other than South Korea has already promoted these laws previously. Australia, the UK, France, China, New Zealand and the Netherlands have imposed bans or taxes on single-use plastic bags. In the case of Kenya, they have the harshest law; those who violate the ban face four years in prison or fine up to $39,000.

According to the statistics, shoppers all over the world are using approximately 500 billion single-use plastic bags per year which also means a million bag every minute across the globe or 150 bags a year for every person on Earth. The World Economic Forum estimates that there are about 150 million tons of plastic in the world’s seas.

Bibliography (MLA 8 FORMAT):

Website Citations:

Website 1:

QSR Media. “Starbucks Korea to Trial Paper Straws.” QSRMedia Asia, 5 Sept. 2018, qsrmedia.asia/community/news/starbucks-korea-trial-paper-straws.

Website 2:

Reynolds, Emily. “How 50 Countries around the World Are Cutting down on Plastic Waste.” INews: The Essential Daily Briefing, INews, 5 June 2018, inews.co.uk/news/environment/countries-plastic-waste/.

Photo Citations:

Photo 1:

Staff, RFA. “Southeast Asian Nations Make Efforts to Reduce Plastic Waste, But They Are Still Not Enough.” Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Asia, 23 Apr. 2018, www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/southeast-asian-nations-make-efforts-to-reduce-plastic-waste-04202018162633.html.

Photo 2:

Vaaju. “Next Month Using Starbucks 100 Straw Paper Straws ... Plastic Sticks Were Also Replaced: International Newspapers.” Vaaju.com, Al-Ittihad Newspaper, 31 Aug. 2018, vaaju.com/koreaeng/next-month-using-starbucks-100-straw-paper-straws-plastic-sticks-were-also-replaced-international-newspapers/.