폐기물과 순환자원의 법적 개념의 변화와 적용

Change and Adaption of Legal Concepts about Waste and Circular Resources

Chun, Jae-kyong


The international society has come to change the paradigm of solid wastes management. Solid wastes was deemed to discarded materials for a long time everywhere in the world. Nowadays, many advanced countries of OECD like Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and U.S.A. has taken steps to adapt their waste management system into recycling-friendly society.
Korea has also taken steps so far to change the waste management paradigm. Korean government introduced so-called the producer liability into the Save of Resources and Acceleration of Recycling Act of 1992 and the Revision Act thereof 2002. The Save of Resources and Acceleration of Recycling Act of 2008 adopted the concept of “sustainable circulation of resources” and the principles to execute this concept.
But it is yet unsatisfactory that the concept of “discarded material” which consist of the concept of “abandoned” or “disposed of” reign over the concept of “circular resources”, that is, “material capable of reuse or recycling” in the environmental legal system. The recycling concept, for example, is yet explained by way of the waste concept as following : “the circular resources in the statute has the meaning of the useful things among wastes etc.”
For the purpose of new paradigm toward sustainable society, the concept of waste and circular resources should be defined again and separately. The definition of circular resources in the statutes concerned should be changed into like this : “the circular resources means materials or energy having economic values to re-product, re-distribute or re-consume among garbages, by-products or discharged materials accompanying to economic activities like production, distribution or consumption of goods or services.”
As a result of this definition about circular resources, the definition of waste in the statutes concerned should also be changed into like this : the waste means discarded material or energy without economic values among garbages, by-products or discharged materials accompanying to economic activities, or material or energy very difficult to recycle or reuse, even if it has some economic values. There are several sections of statutes concerned which should be revised afterwards to harmonize each other according to such change of definition.