Do you know how to label your product packaging in South Korea?
by Jianhong Hu at 10:56 in Packaging
Per the Act on the Promotion and Saving and Recycling Resources, after the packaging recyclability evaluation, all packaging in South Korea needs to be labelled appropriately by December 2021. Here comes the question: What are the requirements of labelling?
Separate Discharge Mark Requirement
The use of a separate discharge mark is mandatory for a list of obligated materials (e.g. paper packs, metal cans, glass bottles, synthetic resins) with a list of contained products (e.g. food and beverages, cosmetics, medicines, etc.). All the obligated packaging must bear the separate discharge mark by printing, engraving or applying an adhesive label.
The mark is comprised of three chasing arrows with the material type in Korean text inside the triangle. For plastics resin and metals, the abbreviations of a specific material (e.g. PET, PP, HDPE, Aluminium, Iron, etc.) will be indicated under the triangle. If it is impossible to label each packaging component, only the major component should be labelled using the symbol for its material type, together with the abbreviations of the material types of the other non-labelled components and their functions adjacent to the symbol.
Producers/importers who want to use the separate discharge mark on their packaging that does not fall into the mandatory list must apply for its use through the Korean Environment Corporation (KECO).
The grades of recyclability evaluation
After the assessment of recyclability, producers/importers will receive a certificate of their packaging grade (excellent/average or normal/difficult to recycle). To simplify the recyclability labelling, the Ministry of Environment has published implementation proposals to integrate the separate discharge mark with the recyclability grades. According to the latest Ministry Notice, it will be voluntary to label packaging with a higher grade of recyclability but mandatory to label packaging graded as 'Difficult to recycle' with a red crossed three-chasing arrows mark.
Recycling grades can be added above, below or alongside the mark. When there is no mark on the packaging,) the recycling grades should be either on the front of the packaging or alongside the barcode.
If you would like to learn more about how to label your product packaging correctly in South Korea and other countries, please feel free to contact Lorax EPI for further details.
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