In South Korea, plastic waste is escalating at a rate of 7% annually, yet only 9% is being recycled. Half of the plastic products consumed are single-use packaging and containers. The government announced a comprehensive plan to reduce plastic waste by 30% by 2030, but ongoing controversies surrounding disposable cups and courier packaging have highlighted the shortcomings of these policies. A Greenpeace expert has pointed out flaws in the government’s strategies over five occasions, emphasizing the need for more effective solutions.

The disposable cup deposit policy, which faced considerable scrutiny, has been threatened as the government has retracted its promise to implement it nationwide by 2025. The core issue, however, is that this initiative is not merely about cup collection; it is a crucial step toward establishing a resource-recycling society. The main priorities of resource recycling policies should be reduction and reuse. The framework for citizen participation in deposit return and logistics for collection are key infrastructures for transitioning to a reusable cup system and for establishing a high-quality recycling base by recovering single-material cups for use in food-grade recycled materials.

Despite having implemented pilot programs in Jeju and Sejong that reported return rates of 78.4% and 41.9% respectively by the end of 2023, the government's response has been to declare the program a 'failure' instead of learning from successful models. This decision has further obfuscated the situation, with the government conducting studies based on pre-existing conclusions and creating confusion by presenting 'pricing' schemes without proper evaluations. As the central government distances itself from accountability, Jeju continues to face the challenge of moving forward in isolation, underscoring the low prioritization of resource recycling in the context of climate crisis response.