Environmental/Government News #3: 4/21/25

 Hello! Here are some recent updates in environmental policy from the past 2 weeks!


LG & Samsung vs. Indian Government:

As some of you may know, LG and Samsung are massive tech companies based in South Korea. Recently, they have filed a law suit against the Indian Government over their new e-waste recycling policy. Put simply, the policy requires that manufacturers pay 22 rupees(or 25 cents) per kilogram of e-waste produced to certified recyclers. The policy aims to increase e-waste recycling in a more formal way. Samsung and LG claim that the policy unfairly raises prices and lacks clear environmental benefits. In my opinion, the policy is fair. However, officials should provide official reports that show significant environmental impact from the policy. What is your opinion on this policy?

UK Government vs. Small Businesses

On a similar note, in the UK, the government has created a new policy, a new tax, that affects businesses with over 25 tons of packaging annually. It aims to make producers responsible for recycling their packaging, and encourage businesses to reduce packaging wastes. However, the most affected people are small and medium-sized food businesses, as packaging majorly affects their operations. These business owners are extremely unhappy, as these fees can severely hurt profits, and could put many people out of business. In my opinion, the fee should scale based on the size of the business, rather than being a flat rate for all businesses. That way, small and medium sized chains would hopefully still be forced to rethink their packaging and recycling it, but still be able to manage costs and stay in business.


Thanks for reading!

Today's Environmental Fun Fact: Banana peels can purify water!'

-Oscar


Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/lg-samsung-sue-indian-government-over-electronic-waste-pricing-policy-2025-04-21/ 

https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/entrepreneurs/article/packaging-tax-catastrophic-small-food-businesses-enterprise-network-vdd05j6pj?

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