In its ongoing bid to go green,... South Korea wants to become far less dependent on all things plastic.
Ensuring new regulations are being followed to the letter,... the environment ministry has started carrying out random inspections at coffee shops and fast food chains.
They are dropping by hundreds of places to make sure they are complying with new rules aimed at sharply reducing the use of such products.
Hong Yoo reports.

When you order a drink in a coffee shop, the staff will ask you:

"To help protect the environment, can I give you your drink in a mug if you are going to stay inside the store?"

If the staff give you a drink in a disposable plastic cup without asking first, the coffee shop will be fined up to 18-hundred U.S. dollars.

Inspections began on August 2nd, to check that staff are informing customers of the new regulations and are asking whether consumers want their drinks to go. And it's already led to some changes:

"The usage of mugs and glass cups has increased a lot thanks to our customers' cooperation."

"Out of 3 billion plastic cups used in our country each year, about 1.5 billion can be reduced with this regulation."

But the guidelines have also caused some confusion.
For example, the use of paper cups is not included in the regulations. In fact, paper cups were excluded from the regulations because they should be recyclable. Yet, this paper cup is also coated with plastic so it can’t be recycled.

Even more, for small coffee shops that only have few employees and depend on the fast circulation of mugs, this regulation could hit their profit margin.

"Our customers are usually office workers who come in at a similar time. So to provide them all with drinks in reusable cups, we need to buy more cups and it is hard to wash all the cups because we don't have enough employees. Practically, we will have to hire more staff."

Despite such problems, there is still hope that the regulations will reduce plastic waste.

"The regulation existed since the early 2000s but it hasn't been put into practice. And to start this all of a sudden will lead to confusion even if the guidelines are well-made. What is important now, is the cooperation between the shops and the local governments to build trust. And to do that, the local government must give a grace period to the owners to help them adapt to the regulation."
Hong Yoo, Arirang News.