Anchor: A newly implemented ban on the direct landfilling of household waste in the capital region has prompted the Seoul city government to launch a waste reduction campaign. The city is asking everyone to throw out less garbage, with the goal of reducing the amount by ten liters per person over the next year, or 60 tons per day for all of Seoul.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: The average Seoulite throws away enough trash to fill 48 standard ten-liter garbage bags every year. 

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is asking the city’s populace of nearly ten million to cut that number down to 47.

On Monday, the city announced its campaign to reduce household waste in an effort to lower its overall waste output by 120 tons a day through 2027, equivalent to the daily average in each of its 25 districts.

To encourage participation, the city government will collect a pledge of action from 100-thousand citizens and invite them to keep track of how much trash they throw out every day for 100 days.

Officials said if 100-thousand people each manage to reduce their trash output by one bag in a year, the city can decrease waste by approximately 60 tons per day, and by around 44-thousand tons after two years should they fulfill that commitment for another year.

The campaign comes as a ban was put in place this year against direct landfilling in Seoul and the surrounding region, and the city’s incineration facilities are at capacity.

Out of a daily average of two-thousand-900 tons produced in Seoul alone, about 880 tons of excess waste must be incinerated elsewhere.

The ban has prompted the city’s 25 districts to handle the surplus by signing contracts with privately run incineration plants in nearby Incheon or Gyeonggi Province, or even outside the capital area.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.