NKorea turns trash into treasure amid pandemic
SEOUL - With anti-pandemic border closures throttling imports of goods such as plastic from China, North Korea’s state media has described a massive focus on recycling as a way to turn its trash into treasure and build a more self-reliant economy.
The scale of recycling is unclear, and some experts are doubtful about the long-term efficacy of the effort, but there has been a clear policy pivot, with an emphasis on recycling now pervading most areas of everyday life.
Organisations are required by a law passed last year to recycle discarded and unused material, including plastic, fabric, paper, glass, scrap metal, rubber, used oil and industrial waste, according to state media agencies KRT and KCNA.
Residents can hand in recyclable waste such as empty bottles at state-run recycling centres or exchange shops. There are 70 exchange shops in the capital Pyongyang, where people can receive consumer goods such as notebooks or shoes when they deposit their recyclable waste, according to KCNA and the Choson Sinbo newspaper.
“North Korea is undergoing something of a recycling revolution,” Martyn Williams, an analyst with the US-based 38 North project, which monitors North Korea, said in a report on Tuesday.
While environmental factors are also cited, analysts said the recycling push is driven more by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s call for developing self-sufficiency to improve an economy battered by international sanctions aimed at stopping its nuclear program, and strict border closures to ward off the coronavirus.
State media have increasingly praised the achievements of recycling at factories in news bulletins, and have produced many cheery propaganda TV programs encouraging residents to recycle.