TheCable

South Korea has announced the lifting of the ban on single-use paper cups due to the country’s economic conditions.

The country had previously implemented regulations on the usage of disposable items at cafes and restaurants. The ministry of environment also came up with a one-year grace period.

Lim Sang-jun, the country’s vice-minister of environment, said the ministry decided to exclude paper cups from disposable items, as other countries mainly restricted the use of single-use plastic cups.

Sang-jun said the ministry has withdrawn the regulation prohibiting the use of disposable paper cups in food service businesses.

It also indefinitely extended the one-year grace period for the ban on plastic straws at cafes and the ban on plastic bags at convenience stores and bakeries.

The ministry said the decision took into consideration the position of small business owners who face the burdens of “high prices and interest rates”.

“Even during the one-year guidance period, we could not reach sufficient social consensus within the community,” he said.

“It is not the government’s duty to burden small business owners and self-employed individuals who are already suffering from rising costs, high prices and difficult economic conditions with additional regulations.”

The ministry, however, recommended the continued use of reusable cups as well as the expansion of recycling efforts — as an alternative to paper-cup prohibition.

It said that it will end the grace period when the quality of alternative products improves and prices stabilise.