Yongsan-gu Leads Thursday Disposal System for Waste Vinyl and PET Bottles

Yongsan District Office, Dong Community Centers, and Other Public Institutions Monthly Analysis of Volume-Based Waste Bag Usage and Strengthening of Recycling Separation

A public official from the Yongsan-gu Resource Circulation Division is inspecting the recycling waste disposal status at the district office garbage collection site on the 7th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] “From now on, general recyclables cannot be disposed of on Thursdays. Please separate and dispose of only waste vinyl and waste PET bottles.”

On the 7th, officials from the Yongsan-gu Office Resource Circulation Division inspected recyclable waste brought from various departments at the garbage collection site on the basement level 2 of the Yongsan-gu Office building. This was because a pilot operation of Thursday disposal for waste vinyl and waste PET bottles started within the office building.

This project aims to utilize high-quality waste vinyl and colorless (transparent) beverage and water PET bottles as high-quality recycled raw materials. On the same day, pilot operations were also conducted in single-family residential and commercial areas within the district.

Waste vinyl, regardless of color or type, should be placed in transparent or semi-transparent bags, and colorless PET bottles should be separated from colored PET bottles and placed in transparent or semi-transparent bags or bags dedicated to colorless PET bottles, then disposed of in front of the house every Thursday (for the district office, at the basement level 2 garbage collection site).

Other recyclables besides waste vinyl and colorless PET bottles cannot be disposed of together on this day.

Yongsan-gu (Mayor Seong Jang-hyun) will actively promote the ‘2020 Public Office Waste Zero Project’ in line with the pilot operation of Thursday disposal for waste vinyl and waste PET bottles.

This is to contribute to environmental conservation and resource saving.

The project targets the district office (38 departments), community service centers (16 locations), and other public institutions (29 locations). The main initiatives include ▲monthly analysis of volume-based waste bag usage within the office building ▲strengthening of recyclable waste separation ▲Thursday disposal system for waste vinyl and waste PET bottles within the office building.

First, the monthly usage of volume-based waste bags within the office building will be identified to devise ways to reduce bag usage.

Also, to strengthen recyclable waste separation, the existing 5 to 6 types of recycling bins installed in all departments and community centers were increased to 7 types (paper, cans & scrap metal, glass bottles, plastic, PET, vinyl, styrofoam).

On the 7th, the Thursday disposal system for waste vinyl and waste PET bottles was initiated for the first time within the office building. This was to identify any issues in advance by experiencing the system together with residents.

An official from the district office said, “Since this is a newly introduced system, we ask for active cooperation from the employees.”

The district office will request improvements from departments that mix recyclables other than waste vinyl and colorless PET bottles or put out contaminated recyclables through self-inspections.

Seong Jang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, “According to the total volume control system for the Seoul Metropolitan Landfill Site, we need to reduce the amount of landfill waste brought in this year by about 10% compared to 2018 (7,344 tons). We will use every possible method to achieve this.”

Besides the Thursday disposal system for waste vinyl and waste PET bottles and the public office waste zero project, the district plans to focus on ▲crackdown on mixed disposal and illegal dumping ▲Yongsan Clean Day large-scale cleaning day ▲illegal dumping prevention poster contest ▲recycling of sewing fabric scraps ▲coffee grounds recycling (composting) projects.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.