Seoul City Reduces Single-Use Items with 8 Delivery Apps... 927 Franchise Stores Nationwide Join

Delivery Apps Benefited from COVID-19 Boom, but Disposable Waste Surges... 8 Delivery Specialists Join
Wemakeprice, Meokkebi, etc. from Korea Franchise Association... 'Team Salad Days' Also to Participate
English, Chinese, and Japanese Brochures Produced for Foreign Promotion

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government, which has embarked on reducing waste through resource recycling, is launching a campaign to reduce disposable products in collaboration with delivery app franchise stores that have enjoyed a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Attention is focused on whether this can break the long-standing habit of using large amounts of disposable products to deliver products to customers due to the nature of the industry.

According to Seoul City on the 18th, the city has signed a business agreement with delivery-specialized companies to jointly reduce disposable products through the "Use My Own Container Campaign" until the end of this year. The Zero Delivery Union of Seoul, including 'Wemakeprice O (Wemakeprice O)', 'Meokkebi', and SGG Solution, will participate, with cooperation from the Korea Environment Corporation's Metropolitan Western Environment Headquarters, the Korea Franchise Industry Association, and the Seoul Environmental Movement Federation.

The situation of disposable waste discharge worsened further during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Statistics Korea, due to strengthened social distancing measures amid the spread of COVID-19 last year, the transaction amount for delivery food nearly doubled from 9.7 trillion won in 2019 to 17.3 trillion won. On the other hand, the Ministry of Environment estimated that the amount of waste plastic and waste vinyl from January to August last year increased by 15% and 11%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2019. While related companies experienced remarkable growth, a side effect of a sharp increase in disposable waste followed.

Jung Mi-sun, head of the Resource Circulation Division of Seoul City, diagnosed, “With the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the delivery culture has spread, causing a rapid increase in disposable product usage, making the treatment of household waste a serious social problem.”

Accordingly, eight brands affiliated with the Korea Franchise Association have already agreed to participate in the campaign, with 150 franchise stores in Seoul and 927 nationwide joining. This is the first time frontline delivery apps have participated in using reusable products. Well-known consumer brands such as Ttangsu Budaejjigae with 48 franchise stores, Gamtan Tteokbokki with 43 franchise stores, and Geoljag Tteokbokki Chicken with 39 franchise stores have been listed as participants. Recently, for the first time outside the Korea Franchise Association, the subscription economy platform operator 'Team Salad Days' has also agreed to participate.

Roles have also been divided. The Korea Environment Corporation and the Korea Franchise Association, participating in the campaign, will promote expanding campaign participants and provide education to directly managed stores and franchise stores involved in the campaign. In particular, SSG Solution will support events and prizes to activate the campaign, while Wemakeprice O and Meokkebi will mark franchise stores participating in the "Use My Own Container Campaign" to create a packaging order environment. Grand Korea Leisure will assist in producing brochures in English, Chinese, and Japanese to promote the campaign to foreigners. These brochures will be placed in hotels.

The "Use My Own Container Campaign" works by consumers ordering through delivery apps and picking up products in their own containers. Although it is less convenient than the method where franchise stores provide and collect reusable containers, consumers participating in the campaign can receive benefits such as price discounts.

Seoul City plans to strengthen promotional activities to encourage citizen participation and expand participating brands and franchise stores. Previously, Seoul City screened promotional videos for the campaign on monitors in 1,528 apartment complexes and 17,053 elevators throughout Seoul, posted promotional flyers in restaurants, and distributed "Stores Accepting My Own Container" stickers.

A Seoul City official explained, “We plan to actively promote through apartment elevator videos until June,” adding, “We will implement the 'Use My Own Container Campaign' on delivery apps in June and steadily increase participating brands.”