The current Act requires the Minister of Environment to prescribe and publicly notify the standards on the improvement, etc., of quality and structure of packing material, and in such public notice, to classify packing material into different grades depending on its quality and structure consisting of grade 1 – which is convenient for recycling, grade 2 – which is inevitably used due to current technological and market conditions, and grade 3 – which causes problems when recycling, but does not expressly prohibit the use of grade 3 packing material.

As a result, there have been cases where low-grade packing material has been used, and due to the fact that such waste is difficult to recycle, a vicious cycle where a high-grade recycled waste is imported from overseas has been created.

In response, this Act aims to promote the recycling of packing material by fundamentally prohibiting a producer obligated to recycle from manufacturing/importing packing material that does not conform to the standards for recycling suitability of packing material prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Environment (Article 9-2).

Prohibit a producer of packing material obligated to recycle from manufacturing or importing packing material that fails to conform to the standards for recycling suitability of packing material prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Environment (Article 9-2)