Seongnam City Changes Food Waste Collection for Apartment Complexes to 'Payment Certificate Volume-Based System'

[Asia Economy (Seongnam) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province will change the method of charging fees for food waste disposal in apartment complexes to a "payment sticker-based volume system" starting from the 1st of next month. Instead, the current flat-rate system of 1,000 KRW per household per month will be abolished.

The payment sticker-based volume system requires residents to attach stickers priced at 3,200 KRW for 60ℓ and 6,400 KRW for 120ℓ according to the amount of food waste generated by each complex.

Residents must purchase two types of payment sticker-based volume system stickers sold at regular supermarkets, attach them to dedicated containers filled with food waste, and then dispose of them. The city's cleaning contractors will collect the waste accordingly.

The payment sticker-based volume system will apply to 378 complexes (183,000 households).

Unlike the flat-rate system, the payment sticker-based volume system allows for measuring the amount of food waste discharged by each complex and has the advantage of increasing the complexes' willingness to reduce food waste.

To enhance the effect of reducing food waste, the city plans to gradually introduce volume-based devices (RFID) capable of measuring food waste discharge per household.

The volume-based device is an automated system where an electronic scale measures the amount of food waste when disposed of and charges fees accordingly.

From next year, newly constructed apartment complexes will be required to install volume-based devices, and the city plans to support 50% of the installation cost, approximately 2 million KRW, for existing apartment complexes.

A city official explained, "The current flat-rate charging system does not consider apartment size or the number of household members when charging food waste disposal fees, so the Ministry of Environment has completely banned it since June 2013," adding, "Seongnam City abolished the flat-rate system through ordinance revision."

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