Accumulated 1.2 Billion Won in Small Change Vanishes: Unclaimed Bottle Deposit Returns Spark Controversy

This is a PET bottle recycling kiosk located in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul.

Users enter their phone number on the screen and insert their collected plastic bottles one by one.

Ten points, equivalent to 10 won, are accumulated per bottle.

It is a small amount of money, but many users collect it consistently.

[Nam Jung-eun / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: They said if you put PET bottles here, you get 10 won per bottle and can insert up to 30 a day. So I thought, instead of just throwing them away, I might as well put them here, and I've been doing it consistently.]

However, the points do not immediately turn into cash.

Users must accumulate a minimum of 2,000 points—meaning they have to insert over 200 plastic bottles—before they can get their money back in cash.

Some companies even require at least 3,000 points to pay out cash.

As a result, unclaimed or uncollected points total approximately 1.2 billion won.

The companies cite a shortage of personnel as the reason.

[Representative from Company A: Accumulating a minimal [recycling] experience was indeed the original purpose. Due to our staffing constraints and the sheer volume of transactions, it is currently difficult to process and exchange every single amount down to tens of won.]

On the other hand, the government's carbon-neutrality points, a similar policy, are deposited once a month without such cash-out hurdles.

In some regions, local governments installed the kiosks using public budgets, but because the operating companies went out of business, users were left unable to recover their money at all.

[Lee Hak-young / National Assembly Climate and Labor Committee Member (Democratic Party): The resource circulation subsidies that should have gone back to the citizens have vanished into thin air.

Now is the time for the central government to step in, closely track, and monitor the situation.] Since its initial introduction in 2017 to boost the recycling rate of plastic bottles, a total of about 2,300 recycling kiosks have been installed nationwide. Institutional improvements seem necessary to further encourage public participation.

Unclaimed Money Reached 1.2 Billion Won… "I Worked Hard to Collect It," What Happened (September 27, 2026, 8 News)

Reported by Jang Sun-i | Produced by Bae Jun-hwi | Video by Ahn Yeo-jin | VJ by Shin So-young | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.