대학생들의 일회용 플라스틱 사용량과 저감 실천 효과 연구

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The environmental pollution caused by plastics is becoming a global issue. In order to reduce
plastic waste, the Korean government is implementing comprehensive countermeasure for recycling
waste management, and encouraging voluntary participation of citizens. This study collected and
characterized plastic emissions generated among college students in a university and examined the
effects of voluntary activities to limit the use of single-use plastics.
In the summer of 2019, a survey on 'Status of Use of Plastic Product' was distributed to about
14,000 students registered in a university. Out of 520 respondents, 99 students were recruited in
voluntary activities on limiting the use of plastics. They were asked to bring all plastic waste generated
during the first fives days. After five days, the participants were grouped into three subgroups and
asked to limit the activities relating to the followings, such as market/convenient stores, cafe, and food
delivery. They collected all plastic waste during another five days with limiting activities by subgroup.
The plastics waste generated for a total of 10 days were collected daily and weighed by type.
The average of disposable plastic waste was 34.7 g/day/person (Range: 12.3-85.9 g/day/person).
PET (57.1%) was the most abundant type of plastic waste and followed by, PP (11.9%) and
OTHER (10.5%). The total mass of plastic waste was decreased by 15.6 g (Before 34.7 g vs.
After 19.1 g, p=.001). The total weight of plastics emissions in each groups were reduced by
limiting the visit of market and by grocery and convenience stores, 20.5 g (before 37.6 g vs. after
17.1 g, p=.001) was reduced. Those from limiting cafe or food delivery were 10.6 g (31.2 g vs.
20.6 g, p=.009), 15.3 g (35.1 g vs. 19.8 g, p=.001), respectively.
Through voluntary activities to limit the use of single-use plastics from this study, plastic
waste was reduced by 45 percent in average. Activities relating to the use of grocery and convenient
stores were the most effective among three subgroups, indicating the plastic ban program needs to
expand to package practices widely used in grocery and convenient stores.