[Seoul District News] The First and Big Step as an Eco-Friendly Festival: Positive Influence & Wake Up Sleeping Tumblers Campaign, Eco-Friendly Campaigns & Carbon Reduction Practice with ‘Recycled Material Flowerpot Making’ Booth & Yongsan District Mayor Joins Street Cleaning from 10 PM on the 16th After Festival & 33 Tons of Trash Collected, 4 Tons Less than 2019 (37 Tons)
On the 16th, after the Itaewon Global Village Festival ended, Park Hee-young, the mayor of Yongsan District, was cleaning the streets with environmental workers at 10 p.m.
[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] At 5 a.m. on October 17th, Itaewon-daero. Along with the cleaned streets, ordinary daily life began. The excitement of the Itaewon Global Village Festival that heated up the weekend remained in the memories of the one million tourists who visited the site.
Yongsan-gu (District Mayor Heeyoung Park) successfully concluded the ‘2022 Itaewon Global Village Festival’ held over two days on the 15th and 16th in the Itaewon Tourism Special Zone area.
The festival, held for the first time in three years, featured a World Food Zone and a Cultural Experience Zone where visitors could experience various cultures, as well as country-specific promotional booths that were popular. Unique programs such as the Global Village Parade and the World Culture Awards also attracted many tourists.
Above all, the biggest achievement of this year’s festival was taking the first step as an ‘eco-friendly festival.’
A district official emphasized, “In the autumn festival season, as festivals are held nationwide, there is a waste crisis at each site,” adding, “The area we paid the most attention to while preparing this year’s festival was the environment.”
The district paid special attention to enhancing the meaning of the festival as an eco-friendly event by actively encouraging the use of reusable containers through the ‘Wake Up Sleeping Tumblers’ campaign. Drinking fountains were installed throughout the festival to provide free drinking water to tourists using tumblers.
According to the environmental booth, 1,350 tumblers and reusable cups were rented over the two days. The usage of drinking fountains also amounted to 50 bottles of 19ℓ bottled water, which is equivalent to reducing the use of 1,900 bottles of 500ml bottled water.
On the afternoon of the 15th and the morning of the 16th, the “Sseudam” (picking up trash while walking) street campaign was held, with 141 volunteers participating, including environmental groups and students from Osan High School.
The district also operated a ‘Cultivating a Small Forest in My Heart’ booth, where participants made flowerpots using recycled materials as part of a carbon reduction campaign.
Minhu Cha (10), who participated in making flowerpots, said, “It was fun to make a flowerpot myself using a disposable cup,” and added, “I felt good to participate in protecting the environment.”
Throughout the festival, dedicated personnel were assigned to carefully separate recyclables, general waste, and food waste. As a result, 33 tons of waste were collected, a decrease of 4 tons compared to 37 tons in 2019 (13 tons recyclables and 24 tons general waste in 2019 vs. 19 tons recyclables and 14 tons general waste this year).
A district official noted, “General waste decreased by 42%, from 24 tons to 14 tons,” emphasizing, “This was thanks to thoroughly separating recyclables that would have otherwise been discarded as general waste.”
A total of 188 cleaning support personnel and 30 cleaning vehicles were deployed during the festival.
From 10 p.m. on the 16th, after the festival ended, waste collection, street and road surface cleaning, and water cleaning were carried out over seven hours. District Mayor Heeyoung Park personally participated in street cleaning alongside environmental officials and inspected the festival site until the very end.
Yongsan District Mayor Heeyoung Park emphasized, “Since we newly attempted an environmental campaign at this year’s festival, there are many shortcomings, but we will add ideas and supplement the deficiencies to make next year’s festival even more eco-friendly.”
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