Former Seoul Climate and Environment Headquarters Chief Ingeun Lee, Deputy Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, Draws Attention with 'Environmental Initiatives'

Technical (Environmental) Officer Exam Graduate Ingeun Lee, Deputy Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, Gains Attention for Eco-Friendly Initiatives Including Resource Recycling of Wood Waste and Door-to-Door Collection of Used Clothes Generated by Moving

Lee In-geun, Deputy Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu (center), took a commemorative photo at the signing ceremony with Lee Sang-hoon, Deputy Mayor of Jung-gu (far left), Yoo Bo-hwa, Deputy Mayor of Seongdong-gu (second from left), and Baek Il-heon, Deputy Mayor of Gwangjin-gu (far right).

People do work that benefits the world based on their life experiences.

Public officials greatly contribute to the development of local communities by utilizing the know-how gained from their accumulated careers.

In particular, among senior public officials in Seoul’s autonomous districts, many implement projects derived from their experiences in Seoul City.

Deputy district heads of Seoul’s autonomous districts often demonstrate remarkable achievements in welfare, environment, transportation, and finance by leveraging their careers during their tenure in Seoul City.

Amid this, Lee In-geun, Deputy District Head of Dongdaemun-gu, who previously served as the Director General of the Climate and Environment Headquarters of Seoul City at Grade 2 and is a technical official (environment) exam pass, was appointed as Deputy District Head of Dongdaemun-gu by Lee Pil-hyung, Dongdaemun District Head, on January 1st of this year to work toward creating a sustainable environmental city, drawing attention with a series of advanced environmental initiatives.

On the 22nd of last month, Deputy District Head Lee signed a joint agreement at the Dongdaemun District Office with Lee Sang-hoon, Deputy District Head of Jung-gu, Yoo Bo-hwa, Deputy District Head of Seongdong-gu, and Baek Il-heon, Deputy District Head of Gwangjin-gu, along with Cheonil Energy (CEO Park Sang-won), an eco-friendly energy innovation company, for the resource recycling of woody waste.

Through this agreement, these autonomous districts can now recycle “unused forest biomass,” a type of woody waste generated locally, into “wood chips,” an eco-friendly renewable energy source, free of charge.

“Unused forest biomass” refers to forest byproducts generated from forest management activities that do not meet the standards for raw timber or are difficult to collect and thus are not easily utilized. These mainly come from thinning or pruning processes for forest maintenance or roadside tree creation and management.

The total amount of woody waste generated by the four autonomous districts is approximately 2,281 tons. Each district is expected to save about 200 million KRW in budget previously spent on waste disposal by recycling forest resources (urban forests) that were discarded as woody waste into eco-friendly energy.

Additionally, by shifting from simple incineration or landfill disposal methods to recycling, a reduction in carbon emissions is also anticipated.

In the case of Dongdaemun-gu, this means a cost saving of about 70 million KRW for processing 700 tons of woody waste, a reduction of approximately 458 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and the stable supply of resources (biomass) to companies producing wood chips for power generation.

Alongside this, Dongdaemun-gu has been implementing a service since the 11th of this month that collects large amounts of used clothing through home visits to provide convenience to residents.

While recyclable used clothing is generally supposed to be disposed of via clothing collection boxes, it is difficult to handle large quantities of used clothing generated due to reasons such as moving or death all at once, and there is also a risk of fire if bereaved families burn the belongings.

Therefore, Dongdaemun-gu has become the first local government to implement a project that collects large amounts of used clothing by visiting on the desired day.

By applying via phone to the Dongdaemun-gu Cleaning Administration Department, the contracted clothing collection organization visits on the designated date to collect clothing. Items that can be collected include clothing, shoes, bags, and blankets excluding cotton blankets, hats, etc., which are the same as the items disposed of in clothing collection boxes.

Lee Pil-hyung, Dongdaemun District Head, said, “We implemented this project to realize visiting administrative services and promote resource recycling. We will continue to build a solid resource circulation system and move toward a carbon-neutral future city, Dongdaemun-gu.”