Korea Philip Morris Collects 330,000 Cigarette Butts Through Environmental Campaign 'Na·Kkong·Chi'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Korea Philip Morris announced on the 1st that it has successfully concluded the 'Na·Kkong·Chi (Let’s pick up cigarette butts starting with myself)' campaign, which was conducted for about a year since August last year in collaboration with the non-profit organization Jeju Olle.

The 'Na·Kkong·Chi' campaign is an abbreviation of 'Let’s pick up cigarette butts starting with myself.' It is an environmental cleanup campaign where participants walk along the Jeju Olle Trail and pick up discarded cigarette butts around famous tourist spots or villages. The campaign was conducted by rewarding participants who completed assigned tasks, encouraging travelers and local residents to naturally join in picking up cigarette butts.

Korea Philip Morris and Jeju Olle also carried out a project for 'Na·Kkong·Chi' campaign participants to raise awareness about the resource recycling potential of cigarette butts, emphasizing that cigarette filters, which decompose into microplastics, can be recycled to reduce their impact on the environment and health.

During the campaign period, 10,457 participants joined, collecting approximately 328,000 cigarette butts. According to a survey conducted among participants, 80% of respondents participated in the Na·Kkong·Chi campaign two or more times. Additionally, 94% of respondents said they would continue environmental cleanup activities such as picking up cigarette butts in the future.

Baek Young-jae, CEO of Korea Philip Morris, said, "I am pleased that the Na·Kkong·Chi campaign, which started to protect the beautiful nature of Jeju, has been successfully concluded with the enthusiastic response of many people," adding, "It is very rewarding that many tourists visiting Jeju experienced the practice of environmental protection and realized its importance before returning to their respective places."

In October last year, CEO Baek also participated in the ‘2020 Jeju Olle Walking Festival,’ completing one course and joining the Na·Kkong·Chi campaign by picking up cigarette butts.

Korea Philip Morris has been conducting various environmental protection campaigns as part of its social contribution activities. From 1998 to 2019, it ran the ‘Love the Sea Campaign’ for 21 years, raising awareness about marine litter issues and encouraging social members’ interest and participation to establish a sustainable ecosystem.

Recently, through the company-wide campaign 'Our Earth is Not an Ashtray,' it has been informing consumers about the environmental impact of cigarette butt litter and encouraging them to change the habit of carelessly discarding cigarette butts.

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