• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2024

This review paper provides a detailed analysis of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle recycling in Japan. Japan is a global leader in PET bottle recycling due to its advanced regulatory framework and proactive industry initiatives. Japan's success attributes to the widespread adoption of bottle-to-bottle recycling, driven by the beverage industry's commitment to sustainability. By utilizing post-consumer PET bottle recovery and food-grade mechanical recycling technologies, Japan has achieved significant milestones in PET bottle recycling. This paper examines regulatory frameworks, collection systems, reprocessing facilities, and food safety assessments to highlight Japan's innovative approaches to PET bottle recycling and their impact on global sustainability efforts. Drawing parallels with Korea's early stages of PET recycling, it suggests involving major beverage companies and re-evaluating regulations to promote bottle-to-bottle recycling. The focus is on the implications for Korea to promote circular economy principles in plastic recycling.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.57-67
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• 2023

The treatment of waste plastic has primarily been entrusted to small companies, which has resulted in challenges in obtaining an accurate overview of the current state of affairs and ensuring profitability. Consequently, despite the presence of recycling technology, their practical application has proven to be challenging. In this study, as part of the waste plastic material recycling plan, it is assumed that the PET/OPP laminated waste film is peeled off at the waste film generation site for the second use. The recycling rate of PET/OPP delaminated waste film is assumed to be 2%, 10%, and 30% referring to the figures suggested by "Life-cycle Post Plastic Measures" from the Korean government. In this study, a physical separation method was developed as a recycling approach for waste PET. A result of cost-benefit analysis was conducted to evaluate the economic viability of the recycling process based on changes in the recycling rate. The findings indicated that a recycling rate of waste PET was 30% or higher resulted in a cost-benefit ratio (Benefit-cost ratio, BCR) of 1.32, exceeding the threshold of BCR ≥1, which is considered to meet the minimum requirement for cost-benefit balance. As the government's allocation ratio and unit price are expected to increase in the future, the cost-benefit ratio is expected to increase further. This case is expected to serve as a pilot initiative for waste PET recycling and foster profit creation for businesses in similar industries.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.149-164
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• 2021

Since the existing mass production and consumption systems are no longer sustainable, countries are pushing for policies to make fisheries by-products as resources in an eco-friendly manner, and international standards are also being strengthened to increase the value of by-products. In Korea, economic and environmental perceptions of the by-products are rapidly changing, such as realizing carbon neutrality and enhancing circular resources by Korean Sustainable Development Goals. Raw materials derived from the by-products have been steadily imported from 2018. In particular, the number of imports of fish collagen peptides was only 16 number of times in 2017, but was rapidly increased to 483 number of times in 2020. Simultaneously, the demand for raw materials and nutrients for health functional food derived from fish by-products, which did not exist statistically until 2017, started to arise from 2018, and in 2019, consumption of high-value-added raw materials for fish by-products increased by 45% compared to the previous year. However, limitations are in legal and biotechnical industry aspects while its value as a biomaterial is recognized in the by-products-related industry. In this study, therefore, the status of by-products for upcycling biomaterials was reported and provided a scientific basis for supporting governmental strategies. In order to fulfill with the principles of a sustainable circular economy, the factors on hinder the marine bio-industrialization of the by-products were derived and suggested directions and plans for development into a high-value added the by-products as the marine bio-industry by substituting imported raw materials to support the development.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.863-886
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• 2003

Internet is the most important element in the emergence of the Internet economy, which derives the creation of new firms and employment, and brings about the new ways of marketing and business. The emergence of the Internet economy and the rapid growth of the Internet industry have a great deal to changes in the spatial economy. Korea has experienced a rapid growth of the Internet industries, but few geographical studies have been done to explain the impact of the development of the Internet industries on the spatial economy. This research explored how Korea has developed as a nation of the strong Internet economy in terms of driving forces by demand and supply side. This research tried to build a data set for the Internet industries with the introduction of a new classification scheme and a measurement. The most important finding from this research was the spatial concentration of the Internet industries toward Seoul at the national level and toward the Gangnam area within Seoul. The rise of Internet industries has added attractiveness to Seoul which enjoys a kind of cumulative and circular advantages.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.71-96
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• 2017

This study analyzes the process of overcoming the impoverishment due to the failure of North Korea planned economy through marketization. Recognizing the economic policy presented by the convergence of market and planned economy system as a economy system and focusing on the 7.1 Economic Management Measures and the 6.28 New Economic Management Measures. The marketization is classified the indigenous marketization (1990-2001), the marketization focusing on central distribution (2002-2011), the marketization focusing on production (2012-2017). The major events, the economic circular structure and the economic behavior were analyzed. Results showed as following: First, through the process of marketization starting from the expansion of farmers' market and the marketization focusing on distribution, the marketization focusing on production to the marketization focusing on finance. And as the evolution of it continues, to some extent a poverty has been overcomed. Second, corporate institutions, agricultural institutions, financial institutions and progress in becoming a market economy direction. A series of privatization starting from small one to large-scale one have been progressing. Third, in order to overcome the impoverishment completely. Through foreign investment the industrialization covering a wide range of industries are urgently needed, Domestic agricultural reform, enterprise reform, price reform, financial reform, financial reform, trade and direct investment, reform, reform, distribution, etc are needed. The economic reforms across almost all sectors are needed to be combined in a global economy Expanding employment, the acquisition of foreign currencies and the acquisition of technology in the process should also be realized. The direction of change of this series of economic structures has turned Public sector and centralized into Private sector and Decentralization.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.22-30
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• 1988

In this paper, the sound radiation from a clamped circular plate in an infinite baffle is calculated by using the FFT technique. The radiated sound fields are obtained by two-dimensional fast Fourier transform method is the spatial domain instead of a direct numerical evaluation of Rayleigh integral for economy of the computation time. The computation time is consumed at least by 1/200 times of the direct numerical evaluation on the Rayleigh integral in acoustic fields. The FFT method can be applicable to any shaped geometry as well as circular plate. The FFT solution could be very powerful in predicting the near and far fields of complex structures.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.67-76
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• 2022

The furniture industry has a high possibility to create value-added and a high potential to create new occupations due to the characteristics of the industry, which mainly consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the used furniture, which has sufficient reuse value, is also crushed and used as solid refuse fuel (SRF) recently. Besides, the number of waste treatment companies continues to decrease, and it occurs congestion of wood waste. As a way to solve the issue, a business model development of remanufacturing used furniture can be suggested as an alternative due to its high circular economic efficiency. Remanufacturing business including furniture industry creates positive effects in various aspects such as economic, environmental and job creation. In other words, remanufacturing is an effective recycling way to reduce input resources and energy in the production process. The results of economic analysis show that the expected annual revenue from the single worker furniture remanufacturing site was 104 million won which is 3.11 times more than the average income of a single-worker household in Korea and its B/C ratio was estimated about 30 which means high business feasibility. Revenue through furniture remanufacturing also showed 320 times higher than that of SRF production from the perspective of weight. In addition, it is shown that the GHGs reduction from the furniture remanufacturing is 2.2 ton CO₂-eq. per year, which is similar to the amount of GHGs absorption effect of 937 pine trees or 622 Korean oak trees annually. Thus the results of this study demonstrate that it is important to adopt an appropriate recycling method considering the economic and environmental effects at the end-of-life stage.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.258-266
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• 2022

Resource productivity (GDP/DMC) is defined as GDP divided by DMC. However, it has shortcomings when estimating the value-added generated from material processing. In this paper, an energy coefficient is applied to GDP to develop a sub-indicator (referred to as GDPe/DMC). Consequently, South Korea, which is a secondary industry-oriented country, created 1,094.60 USD/ton from input materials and was ranked 4th on the OECD list, which is 10 levels higher than the level estimated by GDP/DMC. However, Luxembourg, which is a tertiary industry-oriented country, is ranked 16th on the OECD list, which is 12 levels lower than the level estimated by GDP/DMC. The resource productivity estimated by the sub-indicator (GDPe/DMC) developed in this study indicates that secondary industry-oriented countries are undervalued in the existing main GDP/DMC calculation. On the other hand, tertiary industry-oriented countries are downgraded due to the industrial features of the GDPe/DMC calculation. As a result of this paper, GDPe/DMC could be considered a more reasonable indicator to directly reflect the material input effect compared to the existing main indicator, GDP/DMC. This means that GDPe/DMC-induced resource productivities could be estimated to be slightly higher than the GDP/DMC-induced resource productivities for secondary industry-oriented countries. It is expected that the sub-indicator, GDPe/DMC, proposed in this study could be useful especially for comparing and analyzing the resource productivities between countries that have different industry structures. This study intended to consider a structurally energy/resource-intensive industry in estimating and analyzing national-level resource productivity. Thus, the sub-indicator, GDPe/DMC, may help minimize the distortion of interpreting national resource productivities in various situations, and be utilized as a more efficient tool when used together with GDP/DMC.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2022

This study is to investigate consumers' acceptance and their willingness to pay for clothes made of materials with low microplastic emissions as an alternative to synthetic fibers made of plastics by applying the contingent valuation method. A nationwide web-based survey was conducted for 1,052 respondents proportional to region, age, and gender during February 2021. More than 75% of the sample expressed intentions to purchase microplastic emission-reducing clothing instead of synthetic fiber clothing, and more than 80% of them have stated their willingness to pay for additional prices. A variation of Heckman's sample selection model was adopted to estimate factors affecting respondents' intentions to pay for additional prices, in which the probit model of intentions to purchase the clothing with alternative materials was used as a sample selection equation. While respondents were sensitive to the amounts of price increases suggested in the CV scenario, they expressed high acceptance and preferences for eco-friendly materials regardless of the microplastic emission-reducing levels. Consumers in the circular economy were willing to pay for the range of 41,000 to 51,000 won for a pair of clothing made with microplastic emission-reducing materials. In addition, as the microplastic emission-reducing rate has increased from 50% to 80%, the willingness to pay estimates were also significantly increased, ranging from 41,000~50,500 to 42,000~51,700 won.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.12-18
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• 2023

In 2018, the demand for silver (referred to as Ag) in the electrical and electronics sector was 249 million tons. The demand stood at 81 million tons in the solar module production sector. Currently, due to the rapid increase in solar module installation, the demand for silver is increasing drastically in Korea. However, Korea's natural metal resources and reserves are insufficient in comparison to their consumption, and the domestic silver ore self-sufficiency rate was as low as 2.2% as of 2021. This implies that a recycling technology is necessary to recover valuable metal resources contained in the waste plating solution generated in the metal industry. Therefore, this study compared and analyzed, the results of the impact evaluation through life cycle assessment according to an improvement in the process of recovery of valuable metals in the waste plating solution. The process improvement resulted in reducing GWP (Global Warming Potential) and ADP(Abiotic Depletion Potential) by 50% and 67%, respectively. The GWP of electricity and industrial water was reduced by 98% and 93%, respectively, which significantly contributed to the minimization of energy and water consumption. Thus, the improvement in recycling technology has a high potential to reduce chemical and energy use and improve resource productivity in the urban mining industry.