Transparent PET bottles sorted for recycling at national parks nationwide will be collected through the post office network and delivered to a producer of recycled raw materials, creating a circular recycling system.

The Ministry of Science and ICT's Korea Post Office said on Jan. 27 it will sign a business agreement on Jan. 28 with the Korea National Park Service, the Korea Packaging Recycling Cooperative Association, the Korea Circular Resources Distribution Support Center, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and RM to build a resource-circulation ecosystem through postal collection of transparent PET bottles from national parks.

Under the agreement, the public and private sectors will work closely to establish a circulation cycle for transparent PET bottles covering collection, delivery (transport), reprocessing and recycling. For PET bottle recycling, 12 sites were selected first from 23 national parks where four-wheel delivery is possible and recycling facilities, sorting staff and equipment are in place.

Postal collection of PET bottles will be implemented in earnest from March. When the Korea National Park Service compresses transparent PET bottles generated at national parks and requests collection from the Korea Post Office, the Korea Post Office will use its post office network to deliver them to RM, a producer of recycled raw materials.

RM will process the collected transparent PET bottles into recycled raw materials and supply them to Lotte Chilsung Beverage. Lotte Chilsung Beverage will then supply bottled water again to national park shelters and other sites.

Along with the agreement, each institution agreed to cooperate on separating transparent PET bottles for disposal at national parks, building an efficient resource collection system using the post office logistics infrastructure, and cutting carbon emissions by expanding the use of recycled raw materials.

Kwak Byung-jin (곽병진), acting head of the Korea Post Office, said the project is a meaningful cooperation model that uses the post office's nationwide logistics infrastructure to circulate transparent PET bottles generated at national parks back into resources. He said the Korea Post Office will continue working to create sustainable environmental value through various public-private partnerships.