코로나19로 더 쌓이는 포장재…65% "환경문제 알지만 배달 이용"<br /><br />Social distancing has not only helped stop the virus, it's cut greenhouse gas emissions.<br />But another one of the downsides... is that all the delivery food and online shopping is likely to causing a big increase in plastic waste, something that, as our Eum Ji-young reports, will eventually need to be addressed.<br />The pandemic has led more and more people to shop online and order delivery food.<br />But that's causing pollution from plastic packaging, already a major threat, to get worse.<br />According to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, the average amount plastic consumed by a South Korean for all of last year was 11-point-five kilograms.<br />For South Korea as a whole, in the five years prior to that, the amount of plastic waste rose a whopping 46 percent to 6-thousand-375 tons.<br />That prompted the South Korean government in 2019 to take measures like banning plastic cups when drinking in a cafe,... and no more free plastic bags at the supermarket.<br />For people ordering take-out in the pandemic, some rules on food packaging were partly eased for restaurants, and that's showing up in South Korea's landfills.<br />"There's more residential waste compared to last year because of the increase in food delivery due to COVID-19."<br />According to a survey by aT Corporation on 303 consumers, more than 98 percent of them agreed that more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative packaging should be used for food.<br />But 65 percent said they still order delivery food even though they're aware that the disposable plastic could make environmental problems worse.<br />An aT Corporation official said more government support is needed to develop and apply more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative packaging materials.<br />Eum Ji-young Arirang News.<br />
