[Report] "Overwhelming Crowds Beyond Control" Styrofoam Piling Up Like Snowy Mountains After the Holiday

Seoul Gangbuk Recycling Sorting Facility
Daily Intake Volume Up 33% After Holidays
Each Delivery Label and Tape Must Be Removed Manually

On the 16th, we visited the Seoul Gangbuk Recycling Sorting and Processing Facility. On that day, the sorting and processing center was covered with recyclable waste that had piled up over two days since the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday on the 9th and was then brought in sequentially. Several jeep cranes moved busily, pushing scattered recyclables upward, causing the piles of waste to rapidly grow in size.

Among the towering piles of recyclables, the white styrofoam box piles stood out distinctly. Unlike the PET bottles, which were compressed flat and stacked like retaining walls on one side of the storage area, the styrofoam boxes occupied about one-third of the sorting facility’s storage space, resembling a snowy mountain.

As the jeep crane pushed the styrofoam inward, the boxes, which had briefly shifted inward like an ebb tide, suddenly collapsed and scattered across the floor. On one side, due to space limitations, unprocessed styrofoam piles were stacked like tall towers and contained in plastic bags.

On the 16th, Styrofoam boxes brought in after the holiday were piled up like a mountain at the Gangbuk Recycling Sorting and Processing Facility in Seoul.
[Photo by Lee Ji-eun]

After the Lunar New Year holiday, styrofoam boxes used for gift packaging began to be discarded, causing recycling sorting and processing centers to suffer. Styrofoam boxes take up a lot of storage space due to their large volume, and the removal of delivery labels and tape requires additional labor, adding to the processing burden.

According to statistics from the Gangbuk Recycling Sorting and Processing Facility, the total amount of recyclables brought in over four days from the 12th to the 15th, near the end of the holiday, was 240 tons. This averages about 60 tons per day. On regular days excluding holidays, the average daily intake of recyclables is 45 tons. After the holiday, waste that was prohibited from being discarded during the holiday rushes in all at once, causing a sharp increase in intake volume.

Large Volume Limits Storage Space... Free Transfer to Private Companies

Among the recyclables brought in after the holiday, styrofoam is considered the most challenging item in the recycling process. Although lightweight, its large volume takes up a lot of storage space.

Due to space constraints, frontline processing centers cannot handle all incoming styrofoam and transfer some of it free of charge to private companies. At the Gangbuk Recycling Sorting and Processing Facility, about 11 tons of styrofoam are shipped out monthly, with roughly half, 5 to 6 tons, moved to private companies. The remainder undergoes direct compression at the sorting facility and is reprocessed into recycled raw material called 'ingot,' used in construction molding, which is then sold.

After the holiday, the volume of styrofoam brought in doubles compared to usual, increasing the workload at the sorting facility. A facility official said, "When a styrofoam crisis occurs, the internal storage space is insufficient, and sometimes styrofoam is piled outside the processing center as well. Even on regular days, the sorting facility cannot recycle all incoming styrofoam into ingots, but during the Lunar New Year holiday, the amount of styrofoam is overwhelming."

Recycled raw material 'ingots' made by compressing and reprocessing Styrofoam are contained in sacks. Styrofoam mixed with impurities is processed into ingots with a brownish tint.
[Photo by Lee Ji-eun]

Worries Over Tape and Delivery Label Removal... Labor Shortage

Due to inadequate separation and disposal, additional labor is required for recycling styrofoam. Most styrofoam boxes are discarded without removing delivery labels and plastic tape, forcing public workers to manually remove them one by one. If foreign substances are not properly removed, there is a risk that the ingots will be contaminated with impurities.

Currently, at the Gangbuk Recycling Sorting and Processing Facility, about 10 out of 60 public workers take turns removing foreign substances attached to styrofoam. During periods when styrofoam intake increases, such as after holidays, all 60 workers assigned to each line work overtime to remove tape attached to styrofoam.

A facility official said, "Private companies also find it difficult to handle the labor required for removing foreign substances, making it hard to find places to transfer styrofoam free of charge. If tape and delivery labels were removed cleanly before disposal, the workload would be significantly reduced."

On the 16th, a jeep crane is moving the recycling waste that has piled up after the holiday at the Gangbuk Recycling Sorting and Processing Facility.
[Photo by Lee Ji-eun]

Loose Regulations on Styrofoam Packaging... 'Excessive Packaging' Crackdown Misses the Mark

The styrofoam disposal problem persists due to regulatory loopholes. The Ministry of Environment conducts crackdowns on excessive gift packaging before and after holidays, but styrofoam often escapes these inspections. Since fines are imposed based on the proportion of packaging space relative to the entire product, styrofoam used as packaging containers for agricultural and marine products often has a high product-to-packaging ratio, making it exempt from excessive packaging crackdowns.

There is also a lack of legal grounds to regulate styrofoam packaging. Although the Ministry of Environment has enforced administrative rules regulating the use of synthetic resin packaging materials since 2003, there are no detailed enforcement provisions.

Hong Suyeol, director of the Resource Circulation Social Economy Research Institute, said, "There are administrative rules focusing on reducing styrofoam, but there is no properly established legislation to implement them concretely. It is necessary to reorganize related regulations from the perspective of reducing not only styrofoam but also plastic packaging materials overall."