Hitejinro and Oriental Brewery launched a joint action opposing the installation of a waste sorting facility in the Hyeondo General Industrial Complex in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, demanding a halt to construction and a full review of the plan.
Hitejinro and Oriental Brewery held a joint rally on the 25th in front of Cheongju City Hall and expressed regret over the city's plan to build a waste sorting facility. About 40 employees from both companies, including Kim Jin-young, the Hitejinro plant manager, and Lee Cheol-woo, the Oriental Brewery plant manager, attended and read a joint statement.
According to the statement, the site for the waste sorting facility now being pursued is about 900 meters from Hitejinro's Cheongju plant and about 350 meters from Oriental Brewery's Cheongju plant. It sits directly across a single wall from the Hitejinro employee dormitory.
The two companies cited threats to the food manufacturing environment as the main reason for their opposition. Under the Food Sanitation Act, manufacturing facilities are obligated to maintain a distance from pollutant-generating facilities that does not pose a risk to food, but they said that if odors, dust, and bioaerosols generated during the waste sorting process enter the production lines, food safety cannot be ensured.
They also raised concerns about management risks. The companies said that even though they maintain top-level hygiene management systems, externally introduced contamination factors are impossible to control, and given the structural difficulty of proving the manufacturer has no fault when consumer complaints arise, significant damage—including brand value erosion and sales declines—is expected.
The companies criticized Cheongju for failing to follow legally required procedures under the Environmental Impact Assessment Act and the Industrial Sites and Development Act, and for pushing the project forward without prior consultation with tenant corporations and workers.
They further emphasized that if the issue is not resolved, they will review all possible responses—including closure or relocation of the Cheongju plants—to comply with the Food Sanitation Act and secure a stable production environment.