Starting the Big Spring Cleaning...Spring Cleaning in Mapo, Nowon, Dongjak, and Dongdaemun Districts

Spring has fully blossomed.

On the 15th, the temperature in Seoul reached 13 degrees Celsius, marking a clear sign of spring.

Accordingly, Seoul's autonomous districts are launching spring cleaning campaigns to sweep away the remnants accumulated over winter.

Photo of a major cleanup in the Hongdae Entrance Station area, Mapo-gu, last March

Mapo-gu (District Mayor Park Gang-su) will conduct a large-scale spring cleaning on March 19th starting at 7 a.m., involving a total of about 1,650 personnel.

About 250 participants, including Mapo-gu employees, residents, professional organizations, and businesses, will sequentially clean Hongdae Red Road and Gongdeok Market. Starting from ‘Sangsang Madang’ in Hongdae, they will clean the club street and R5 (Eoulmadang-ro), then move to Gongdeok Station to clean Gongdeok Market and the area near Gongdeok Elementary School.

Resident Kim Hyun-woo (Gongdeok-dong, 50) said, “Seeing the streets cleaned up makes me feel refreshed,” adding, “I plan to participate in the Gongdeok Market cleaning again this year with the thought of welcoming the new spring through local volunteering.”

Participants will wear sashes that read “Let’s Make a Clean Mapo Together” and carry out a local cleanliness campaign by picking up trash around roads and public facilities and performing water cleaning to remove dust accumulated over winter.

Nowon-gu (District Mayor Oh Seung-rok) began its spring cleaning on the morning of the 14th at 8 a.m., starting from the backyard of the Gongneung 1-dong Community Center in Nowon-gu, Seoul, covering the Gongneung-dong area.

In response to early spring flower news due to climate change, the district decided to conduct the ‘Spring Cleaning with Residents’ starting in early March. The ‘Cleaning Week,’ usually held in the fourth week of March, was moved to the second week to focus on cleaning accumulated trash on major roads, back alleys, hiking trails, walking paths, green spaces, and public facilities.

On this day, Oh Seung-rok, the district mayor, who participated in cleaning the residential area of Gongneung-dong, gathered at the Gongneung 1-dong Community Center and greeted about 120 people including Clean Keeper groups, cleaning staff, professional organizations and clubs, and pre-registered residents, then joined in picking up trash on back alleys on foot.

The event also promoted the ‘Sseu-dam Movement’ to establish a culture of voluntary cleaning among residents. The Sseu-dam Movement, familiar as ‘plogging,’ is a campaign where participants jog while picking up trash to protect both health and the environment.

Oh Seung-rok, Nowon-gu Mayor, said, “I thank all residents who participated in the spring cleaning day despite the early hour,” adding, “I hope everyone welcomes spring with a new mindset, taking pride in our clean neighborhood as a reflection of ourselves as cultural citizens.”

Dongjak-gu (District Mayor Park Il-ha) announced that it will conduct a ‘Spring Cleaning of Kkachisan Park’ on the 8th as a preemptive environmental maintenance effort for the creation of the premium Kkachisan Trail.

Under the slogan “Cleaning Our Neighborhood with Our Own Hands!”, about 150 local residents, district officials, university students, and volunteers will voluntarily participate to lead the creation of a pleasant natural environment.

The cleaning will take place from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the 8th around Kkachisan Park (49 Sadang-ro 16ja-gil).

The plan is to remove hazardous elements such as abandoned dead trees that have been left unattended for years near major walking trails, collect accumulated fallen leaves and various trash, create clean hiking trails, and prevent forest fires and landslides in advance.

While the district has designated a ‘Spring Cleaning Week’ every year during which all 15 neighborhoods conduct simultaneous local cleanups, this year the cleaning in the relevant area will be advanced in line with the ‘Creation of the Premium Kkachisan Trail’ project.

The ‘Spring Cleaning Week’ is scheduled from the 18th to the 29th as part of Dongjak-gu’s thawing season measures, during which environmental maintenance will be carried out in vulnerable cleaning areas by neighborhood, and campaigns for voluntary resident cleaning will be promoted.

Dongdaemun-gu (District Mayor Lee Pil-hyung) has designated the two weeks from March 4th to March 15th as the cleaning period and will carry out environmental maintenance on major roads with heavy foot traffic, side streets, parks, riversides, and other facilities managed by the district to remove the grime accumulated over winter.

The main environmental maintenance tasks include ▲ cleaning illegally dumped trash on side streets and alleys ▲ water cleaning and dust removal on roads ▲ fallen leaf cleaning in parks and green belts ▲ maintenance of rainwater drains ▲ environmental maintenance around construction sites ▲ and management of abandoned bicycles.

On the 5th, Lee Pil-hyung, Dongdaemun-gu Mayor, visited Dapsimni 2-dong and joined employees, residents, and volunteers from professional organizations to help clean various parts of the neighborhood.

Along with the spring cleaning, the Dongdaemun-gu Cleaning Administration Department will reorganize the work methods of environmental officers starting in March to begin ‘Side Street Patrol Cleaning.’

According to the new work method, environmental officers will be assigned to clean side streets focusing on habitual illegal dumping areas identified by neighborhood community centers, cleaning four neighborhoods per day. This aims to break the vicious cycle of “cleaning only to have it get dirty again” and maintain a constant state of cleanliness.