Seongnam City Expands Ice Pack Reuse... 27 Collection Boxes Installed

[Asia Economy (Seongnam) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province has resumed the ice pack reuse circulation project, which was piloted last year, this month.

On the 18th, Seongnam City announced that it recently increased the number of ice pack collection boxes from the previous 16 locations to a total of 27, including Dong Administrative Welfare Centers in Siheung-dong, Eunhaeng 2-dong, and Pangyo-dong, as well as Seongnam City Resource Circulation Store re100 in Hadaewon-dong and Yeosu-dong, and Sujin-dong Sujeong Community Center.

The target ice packs for collection are gel-type, vinyl-packaged, sized 16cm × 23cm (±1~2cm).

Ice packs with paper or nonwoven fabric packaging, or those that are damaged or contaminated, are not reusable and therefore not collected.

The gel-type ice packs gathered in the collection boxes undergo washing and disinfection processes and are provided free of charge to 20 necessary businesses such as large-scale stores, traditional markets, and meat packaging processing companies.

In May last year, the city signed a business agreement with the Korea Environment Corporation Metropolitan Eastern Environment Headquarters on "Proper Treatment and Reuse System Establishment for Ice Packs."

Afterwards, the Gyeonggi Seongnam Regional Self-Support Center washed and disinfected 43,000 gel-type ice packs collected over seven months and provided them to 17 companies.

A city official said, "We expanded the installation of collection boxes to gather ice packs discarded from households and increased the number of providing companies," and urged, "Please cooperate in preventing environmental pollution and reducing household waste."