Suncheon-si, National Design Team Awarded 'Minister of the Interior and Safety Award'

Creating a Disposable-Free Funeral Hall: From Raising Awareness to Planning Together with Citizens

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Suncheon City (Mayor Heo Seok) won the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award for the project "Creating a Funeral Hall Without Disposable Products" in this year's Ministry of the Interior and Safety National Design Team Excellence Project evaluation and secured a special grant of 50 million KRW.

Among the 23 final excellent projects selected this year from central and local governments, Suncheon City was the only one in Jeollanam-do to pass the first round of document screening, and after the second round of online voting and presentation evaluation, it was selected as a final excellent project.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety National Design Team project refers to the entire process in which policy demanders, citizens, experts, and administration come together to identify everyday problems that need improvement, propose various implementation strategies, and design a single policy.

Suncheon City formed a National Design Team consisting of 11 members including service designer Kim Ji-woo, citizens, and public officials, raising issues about the indiscriminate use and disposal of disposable plastic products in funeral halls, and selected the project "Creating a Funeral Hall Without Disposable Products" suitable for the living environment of the ecological capital Suncheon.

Accordingly, a survey on the use of disposable products at six funeral halls in Suncheon and a citizen survey were conducted, and eight workshops were held from April to August this year.

Focusing on the point that awareness improvement must precede so that the use of disposable products in funeral halls is not taken for granted, the "Innovation Forum for Funeral Halls Without Disposable Products" was held, and a promotion plan for implementing a pilot project for funeral halls without disposable products was established, carrying out citizen-participatory policy design activities.

Kim Bo-woon, Secretary General of the National Design Team (Sungkarolo Hospital Funeral Hall), who participated in the project, said, "In the process of finding solutions to create a funeral hall without disposable products with the team members, I felt that it was very meaningful for citizens and administration to collaborate and establish a single policy."

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