Mapo-gu, Clean Every Corner... Creating Pleasant Alleyways 365 Days a Year

Strengthening Enforcement Against Illegal Dumping with Environmental Officers and Mobile CCTV Operation
Actively Promoting Thorough Alleyway Cleaning in Close Cooperation with Dong Community Centers

Mapo-gu (Mayor Park Gang-su) will strengthen its cleaning management system and intensify beautification activities in 2024 to create clean and pristine alleyways.

Narrow alleyways are difficult for cleaning vehicles to access and often have many sloped areas, requiring manual cleaning. If cleaning is not carried out promptly, trash can accumulate and create an unpleasant environment.

To maintain pleasant alleyways, Mapo-gu has established the "2024 Comprehensive Plan for Strengthening Alleyway Cleaning" and plans to work with local community centers throughout the year to create a cleaner Mapo.

The comprehensive plan for strengthening alleyway cleaning consists of three main areas: ▲strengthening enforcement and guidance against illegal dumping ▲improving the cleaning management system between the district and community centers ▲activating resident-led voluntary cleaning.

To enforce and guide against illegal dumping, three teams of environmental officers will operate as illegal dumping enforcement squads. These squads will focus on areas with concentrated illegal dumping, such as around Hongdae, and will flexibly monitor habitual dumping sites in each neighborhood based on complaints.

Community centers will deploy cleaning officials and environmental security officers. They will focus on habitual and vulnerable illegal dumping areas and complaint-prone locations in each neighborhood, thoroughly patrolling every corner of the alleyways.

Additionally, Mapo-gu will strengthen illegal dumping enforcement by operating mobile CCTV with voice capabilities and a reward system for illegal dumping reporters. In areas with many international students and foreign tourists, such as Yeonnam-dong, Seogyo-dong, and Daehyeong-dong, foreign language illegal dumping warning signs will be installed and foreign language informational leaflets distributed to raise awareness of proper waste disposal methods.

To improve the cleaning management system with community centers, Mapo-gu analyzed the cleaning conditions of each neighborhood by comprehensively considering residents’ living patterns, floating population, and terrain, and allocated budgets accordingly.

During winter, public work and senior job programs end, leading to a shortage of cleaning personnel in neighborhoods and an increase in complaints. To address this cleaning gap, from December to January of the following year, environmental officers who usually handle street cleaning will support alleyway cleaning.

Furthermore, Mapo-gu plans to select outstanding neighborhoods through evaluations to encourage those that actively promoted cleaning administration throughout the year.

To supplement cleaning administrative capacity, which has limits with public personnel alone, Mapo-gu will also promote a "resident voluntary cleaning atmosphere." The district will provide cleaning supplies to residents who wish to volunteer, such as students and merchant associations, and recognize their volunteer hours to create clean alleyways. It will also operate resource circulation experience programs to raise awareness of resource conservation and recycling practices.

Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo-gu, stated, “We are deploying personnel and providing full support to maintain a clean environment not only on major roads but also in narrow alleyways. While cleaning is important, minimizing waste generation is the top priority, so we ask residents for their active interest and participation in resource conservation and recycling.”

Meanwhile, Mapo-gu plans to collect all household waste generated before the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday during the holiday period to keep Mapo clean. Waste generated during the Lunar New Year holiday can be disposed of after sunset on the 12th, and Mapo-gu will promptly collect the waste starting the evening of the 12th, making every effort to maintain alleyway cleanliness.

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