"Do Not Throw Waste Vinyl in Volume-Based Waste Bags"... Jung-gu, Seoul Initiates Recycling Activation

Focused Promotion in Commercial Areas like Myeongdong and Sindang-dong
Intensive Management Targeting Businesses with Large Amounts of Waste Vinyl Disposal

On the 25th, Jung-gu, Seoul announced that it will strengthen the separate collection of waste vinyl bags disposed of in volume-based waste bags to reduce and recycle household waste.

Jung-gu, which has many densely packed commercial areas in the city center, plans to strengthen management centered on commercial establishments to revitalize waste vinyl recycling. The district has selected six commercial areas?Myeongdong, Hoehyeon-dong, Gwanghui-dong, Euljiro-dong, Sogong-dong, and Sindang-dong?where restaurants, retail stores, and lodging facilities that emit large amounts of waste vinyl are concentrated, and is conducting focused promotions.

To this end, 300,000 dedicated bags were produced and delivered along with separate collection guides to 10,084 locations within the district. Until the end of this year, 2 to 4 resource managers will be assigned to each intensive management area to promote and guide the separate collection of waste vinyl face-to-face.

Waste vinyl accounts for 16-20% of the total recyclable materials sorted in Jung-gu and is increasing every year. To activate the recycling of waste vinyl, which is included in volume-based waste bags and incinerated or landfilled, the list of items for separate collection will be expanded.

The target items for separate collection of waste vinyl include snack and coffee packaging vinyl, colored vinyl, vinyl with stickers attached, small vinyl such as triangular kimbap wrappers or ramen seasoning packets, vinyl gloves, thermal insulation/cooling packs, and onion nets.

If contaminated with food waste, foreign substances should be removed by rinsing with water before separate disposal. However, food wrap used for packaging in supermarkets and twine are not subject to separate collection and should be disposed of in volume-based waste bags.

Additionally, to activate the separate collection of waste vinyl in general households within the district, ‘waste vinyl’ has been added to the volume-based waste bag exchange program. A visiting business briefing session is planned for September to October this year.

A district official said, “Thanks to the efforts of residents who actively reduced household waste, Jung-gu was selected as the best district in Seoul’s import volume management system consecutively from 2020 to last year,” and added, “Building on past successful experiences, we ask for much interest and cooperation so that waste vinyl can be properly separated and collected.”

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