The Wave of Donated Recyclable Ice Packs in Mapo-gu

Collection boxes installed at Dong Resident Center; residents share leftover packs from freezers... Over 850 collected in a month and provided to nearby agricultural and fishery market merchants

Ice Pack Collection

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Some residents take leftover ice packs from neighborhood community centers.

Seongsan 1-dong Community Center in Mapo-gu (Mayor Yudonggyun) is promoting a project to collect and recycle packaging ice packs together with members of the Saemaeul Leaders' Council and the Women's Association, composed of local residents.

This is a non-budget project to collect ice packs that do not rot, burn, or melt from residents and distribute them to nearby merchants who need them.

Since early August, ice pack collection boxes installed at Seongsan 1-dong Community Center and Mapo Central Library have been continuously filled with ice packs. Both the staff and members leading the project and the nearby merchants at Mapo Agricultural and Marine Products Market who receive and recycle these ice packs are amazed.

By the 9th, about a month after installing the ice pack collection boxes, 856 ice packs had been collected.

Since the project started, Seongsan 1-dong Community Center staff and members of the Saemaeul Leaders' Council and Women's Association have delivered these recycled ice packs to the Merchants' Association of the nearby Mapo Agricultural and Marine Products Market seven times, once a week.

The 856 ice packs collected over about a month amount to approximately 1.71 million KRW when converted at an average price of about 2,000 KRW per pack.

A district official said, "When we first started the ice pack recycling project, we did not expect such a high level of response from residents," adding, "Many residents voluntarily participate, thinking about the environment and sharing with others who need them."

The Merchants' Association of Mapo Agricultural and Marine Products Market (Chairman Jeong Yangho), which receives the recycled ice packs, hinted that the ice packs are so popular that merchants look forward to the days they arrive. Merchants reuse these ice packs for packaging various fresh foods.

Yudonggyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, "As a result of residents voluntarily participating in the collection, everyone is satisfied," and added, "We will expand ways to recycle ice packs that accumulate one by one in home freezers."

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