Seongdong-gu Installs 100 Recycling Stations, Creates 200 Jobs

From May, 100 Seongdong Purumi Recycling Stations to be Installed and Operated in All 17 Neighborhood Residential Areas... Recruitment of 200 Resource Managers for 'Seongdong Purumi Recycling Stations' Creating Jobs

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Wono) will expand the ‘Seongdong Purumi Recycling Stations’ to general residential areas starting in May, and will fully operate 100 locations across all 17 neighborhoods.

The ‘Seongdong Purumi Recycling Stations’ is a project that installs separate collection bins at key locations and assigns resource managers to assist residents with sorting waste, aiming to reduce mixed waste disposal in residential areas and create a pleasant environment. It operates every Thursday and Sunday from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM.

With the recent increase in single-person households and the spread of non-face-to-face culture due to COVID-19, the problem of rapidly increasing recyclable waste has continued. The district has expanded the recycling stations and prepared proactive measures for recycling sorting.

In particular, recyclable waste surged by about 5.6% from 1,076 tons per month in 2019 to 1,136 tons in 2020, and the recycling rate declined due to mixed waste disposal in residential areas such as single-family and multi-family homes.

Accordingly, the district plans to increase the recycling rate to prepare for the waste disposal issues following the closure of the metropolitan landfill site in 2025, contributing to resource circulation as well.

Additionally, the district is recruiting proactive residents interested in local issues as resource managers, providing jobs to 200 local residents facing economic difficulties due to COVID-19, and aims to create a collection system that can prevent inconveniences such as illegal dumping in advance, thereby also generating employment.

For successful implementation, the district selected two administrative neighborhoods (Seongsu 2-ga 1-dong and Songjeong-dong) last October and piloted six locations.

Over three months, more than 2,000 residents and nearby merchants actively participated in the project, improving the existing recycling sorting rate from 43.2% to 55%, and collected 8.1 tons of recyclables sorted by item.

Jeong Wono, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, stated, “Waste management is an urgent task that we living today must solve,” and added, “We will actively strive to consider waste as a resource, spread a culture of separate waste disposal throughout the entire area, and create a sustainable resource circulation city where people and the environment can coexist.”