Gwangju Nam-gu Implements 'Day-by-Day Collection by Item' for Recyclable Resources

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Nam-gu, Gwangju (District Mayor Kim Byung-nae) will implement a ‘day-specific collection by item’ system starting this month to increase the collection rate of recyclable resources discharged from detached houses and commercial buildings.

A three-month guidance period will be applied until March, and from April, items disposed of on days other than the designated collection days for each item will not be collected.

According to Nam-gu on the 10th, the day-specific collection by item for detached houses and commercial buildings has been in effect since the 2nd of this month.

The items that can be disposed of on specific days are plastics and paper on Mondays and Wednesdays, Styrofoam and vinyl on Tuesdays and Thursdays, transparent PET bottles and paper packs on Fridays, and scrap metal, cans, and glass bottles on Saturdays.

In the case of apartment complexes, recyclable resources can be disposed of at the collection points within the complex at any time, and Nam-gu collects only the recyclable items corresponding to the designated day at these collection points.

The reason for introducing the day-specific collection by item is that there has been an increase in cases where contaminated items and mixed types of goods are disposed of together, which has significantly reduced work efficiency due to the process of first collecting by vehicle and then re-sorting.

Additionally, the increase in collection volume has caused a sharp rise in processing costs.

In fact, the amount of recyclable waste collected from detached houses in the district over the past three years increased significantly from 2,639 tons in 2019 to 4,425 tons in 2020, and 4,477 tons were collected in 2021 as well.

The processing cost jumped nearly twofold from 516.24 million KRW in 2019 to 1.17639 billion KRW in 2020, and about 1.197 billion KRW was spent in 2021.

Nam-gu is actively informing residents using leaflets, banners, flyers, and resource circulation eco-bags to ensure the early establishment of the day-specific collection by item system, and is also conducting focused promotions through the district office website, newsletters, and the district office’s social media channels.

A Nam-gu official said, “We will fully implement the guidance period until March, and from then on, fines will be imposed according to regulations for mixed disposal and violations of the day-specific system. We ask for residents’ active cooperation to improve resource recycling and collection work efficiency.”

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