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Jinju, a well-known city for abundant cultural assets and good education, was assigned as an innovative city by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport in Korea and became even more vigorous with public institutions such as Korea Land and Housing Corporation, Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, Korea Testing Laboratory, and many others settled in the region. KICET, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology, is also one of them, located in Nam River in the city. As one of the government-funded research institutes, KICET was established for research development, test analysis, education of human resource of cutting-edge ceramic technology and covers a diverse range of fields including life, environment, energy, bio, medical, contributing to the improvement on the competitiveness of the ceramic industry. On May 3rd, there was a ‘ Training Business for Science and Engineering Expertise ’ held at an auditorium of KICET and rePAPER ’ s CEO, Yoon Cheol, gave a lectu...

The use of disposables has been rapidly increased since COVID19 outbreak. Some consumers purchase ‘ environmentally friendly ’ products described as biodegradable or compostable in the belief that they are making a better choice for the environment. But, does our decision really bring the result as we wish and expect? According to Jason Locklin, the director of New Materials Institute of the University of Georgia, expressions like ‘ biodegradable ’ or ‘ compostable ’ confuse not only customers but also experts in the fields, for such products may only be degraded under certain conditions and mess up with recycling stream. Let ’ s take a few examples that are marketed as biodegradable. Can we really trust these products that are supposed to relieve customer ’ s guilt on the use of disposables?   1 st  player It is PLA(Poly Lactic Acid). PLA is made from ingredients mostly extracted from corn starch that it is one of the most well-known environmentally-friendly resi...