International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

This has been possible under a broader policy for the Law for Promotion of Effective
Utilisation of Resources which seeks to reduce the generation of waste and to
contribute to the protection of the environment. This law became effective from April
2001 with respect to batteries includes the following requirements:
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� Collection of small secondary batteries;
� Recycling of small secondary batteries including recycling efficiency targets;
� Enlightenment and providing information for collection; and
� Acceptance of small secondary batteries collected through municipalities by
manufacturers under producer responsibility.
25.2.3.4 South Korea
In South Korea producer responsibility was extended to batteries (manganese,
alkaline manganese and Ni-MH) in 2008. This is in part to do with the memorandum
of understanding that Korea has signed with a number EU countries which promotes
cooperation in the area of environmental protection through the exchange of human
resources and information. As such, much of Korea’s environmental policy reflects
that of the EU. This also reflects the prominent role of South Korean manufacturers in
some EU markets, for example some WEEE categories.
25.3 Key Organisations Involved in Implementation and
Management
Typically national government environmental and business departments are
responsible for implementing such regulations, with environmental agencies usually
acting as the regulator. This process usually involves significant consultation with
industry and other affected parties.
Producer responsibility policies in the EU impose an obligation on producers,
depending on the amount they put on the market, which they can either discharge
themselves or through a collective scheme of some sort, generally known as
“compliance schemes”. This framework can be delivered by either a single scheme or
a number of schemes (multiple-schemes), both of which would be monitored by
regulators. In the UK multiple compliance schemes (around 40) set up to deal with
WEEE have led to complications in terms of reconciling the data between these
schemes and the regulator. Despite this the UK Government has opted to pursue a
multiple compliance scheme for batteries, stating that it “envisages that a marketdriven
system of this design will provide more flexibility for producers, giving them an
element of choice and potentially resulting in their incurring lower costs”. 545
Proponents of the single scheme claim that competition is possible via this route,
provided that a suitable tendering process is used.
545 http://www.letsrecycle.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=37&listcatid=326&listitemid=10152
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes