South Korea’s mountain of plastic waste shows limits of recycling

South Korea has won international praise for its recycling efforts, but as it prepares to host talks for a global plastic waste agreement, experts say the country’s approach highlights its limits.

When the talks known as INC-5 kick off in Busan next week, debate is expected to center around whether a U.N. treaty should seek to limit the amount of plastic being made in the first place.

Opponents of such an approach, including major plastic and petrochemical producers such as Saudi Arabia and China, have argued in previous rounds that countries should focus on less contentious topics, such as plastic waste management.

South Korea says that it recycles 73% of its plastic waste, compared to about 5% to 6% in the United States, and the country might seem to be a model for a waste management approach.

The bi-monthly MIT Technology Review magazine has rated South Korea as “one of the world’s best recycling economies,” and the only Asian country out of the top 10 on its Green Future Index in 2022.

But environmental activists and members of the waste management industry say the recycling numbers…