'Waste Plastics' Circular Utilization Project Passes Pre-feasibility Study... 250 Billion Won to Be Invested Over 7 Years Starting 2027

K-Circular Economy Re-born Project
Recycling Waste Resources by Processing Them in Their Original Form

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute announced on March 11 that the "K-Circular Economy Re-born Project" has passed the preliminary feasibility study (pre-feasibility study) at the National R&D Project Evaluation Committee held at the National Science and Technology Advisory Council in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The total project budget is 254 billion won, of which 177.8 billion won will be funded by the national government.

This project is one of the core technology development tasks under National Agenda Item 42, "Establishment of a Circular Economy Ecosystem," and aims to develop full-cycle technologies to enhance the recyclability of waste resources. The core is to secure production and management technologies for circular materials—substances that can be recycled in their original form or after processing from waste resources.

On the 5th, Environment Day, at the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement in Jongno-gu, Seoul, a participant is hanging waste plastic on a large net sculpture at the "Plastic Vomiting" event. This event symbolizes the Earth, overwhelmed by the plastic pouring out right before our eyes, vomiting out plastic waste. Photo by Yongjun Cho jun21@

The project will drive innovation in mass production technologies for circular materials targeting four key waste streams: waste plastics, end-of-life vehicles, decommissioned wind power components, and small- and medium-sized waste electrical and electronic equipment. The technological outputs include flakes, pyrolysis oil, valuable metals, rare earth elements, and carbon fibers.

The detailed project consists of three main areas—preprocessing, materialization, and management system establishment—encompassing a total of 16 strategic tasks. The preprocessing area includes the development of waste resource sorting, dismantling, and separation technologies using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Specific initiatives include waste plastic sorting systems, cutting of wind power waste components, automated separation robots for end-of-life vehicles, and safety management technologies for waste electrical and electronic equipment including secondary batteries.

The materialization area aims to develop technologies to produce high-quality circular materials at the level of virgin materials from preprocessed waste resources. There are 11 strategic tasks, including the enhancement of flake process efficiency, continuous pyrolysis oil production, car-to-car recycling of auto parts, recovery of valuable resources from decommissioned wind power components, and recycling technologies for key parts of hydrogen electric vehicles (membrane electrode assemblies).

The management area focuses on optimizing the full-cycle process of circular material production and securing demand-supply linkage technologies to facilitate market transactions. The digital transformation of circular material production process information and the development of methodologies for collecting material flow analysis (MFA) data are key strategic tasks in this area.

Unlike previous circular economy technology development efforts, which focused mainly on single items and certain stages of the circular process, this project is significant in that it targets key waste streams with urgent domestic and international needs through full-cycle technology development. By expanding the supply of high-quality circular materials, the project is expected to revitalize the domestic circular materials market and help respond to overseas regulations such as the European Union’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and End-of-Life Vehicle Regulation (ELVR).

Kim Goeung, Director General of the Resources Circulation Bureau at the Ministry of Climate, stated, "Having passed the pre-feasibility study, this project will become a major driving force accelerating Korea's transition to a circular economy," adding, "Starting with large-scale technological support, we will expand support across all policies and technologies related to the circular economy."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.