Korea to melt instant noodle cups to produce petrochemical feedstock

For decades, the empty, broth-stained polystyrene cup that once held instant noodles was viewed by Korean sanitation officials as an intractable environmental nuisance. Too heavily contaminated by spicy oil to be processed by traditional mechanical recycling, millions of these lightweight containers were destined for the incinerator or the landfill, a stubborn byproduct of the nation’s ubiquitous convenience food culture. Now, the government is attempting to transform this discarded plastic waste into a valuable feedstock for the petrochemical industry. The Ministry of Environment said Monday that it is expanding a nationwide chemical recycling initiative that uses advanced thermal decomposition technology to break down polystyrene paper — commonly known as PSP — and convert it into naphtha, a foundational building block for new plastics. The expansion marks a significant shift away from mechanical recycling, which simply melts and reshapes plastic, often degrading its quality and limiting its reuse to low-value items. Polystyrene paper has long frustrated recycling networks becau

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