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Limitations and alternatives of the System for Post-use Treatment of Biodegradable Plastic
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This review identifies systemic failures in how biodegradable plastics are managed in waste streams — including mislabeling, lack of dedicated composting infrastructure, and greenwashing — and recommends near-infrared sorting systems, stricter certification standards, and expanded private-sector biogasification capacity as key improvements.
Plastics are widely used in various industries based on their wide utilization and durability. However, there is a problem of plastic waste treatment because it takes a very long time to decompose naturally. As a result, biodegradable plastics that can be naturally decomposed by microorganisms have been attracting attention, and the demand is continuously increasing. However, questions have been raised about the proper management and treatment of biodegradable plastics in the domestic waste management system. This is because biodegradable plastics are collected together with general plastics and processed without proper decomposition environments. Therefore, the management and treatment status of biodegradable plastics was reviewed by synthesizing domestic and foreign papers, reports, websites, and press releases from the Ministry of Environment. Frequent fluctuations in the domestic certification system, lack of effectiveness of greenwashing regulations, increase in greenwashing cases, classification of general waste of biodegradable plastics, absence of dedicated composting facilities due to economic inefficiency, and lack of collection systems and treatment methods were identified. Based on this, improvement measures were suggested by comparing and analyzing with foreign cases. It was found that it is necessary to introduce a detailed certification system tailored to the environment in which products are used internationally, establish a convenient information provision system by strengthening cooperation with private organizations, improve a system centered on greenwashing prevention, mandate environmental capacity-building education, establish a screening system using near-infrared spectroscopy, expand participation of private companies in biogasification technology, and improve the system.
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