"Please Don't Do This"... Delivery Driver Sighs Over Cooler Bag Filled with Trash

Customer Leaving Various Plastic and Food Waste
Netizens Outraged "Reason Cockroaches Appear"

Cooling bags, which play a significant role in preventing food spoilage and reducing single-use plastics during fresh food delivery, have become the center of controversy after a story surfaced about someone filling them with leftover food and trash.

A scene of a cooler bag being filled with trash and placed outside for collection.
[Photo by Online Community]

On the 2nd, a post titled "Let's Not Live Like This" was uploaded to an online community. The author, A, whose family works in delivery, began by saying, "While helping my family collect cooling bags, I found this inside one of the bags."

Photos shared by A show frozen strawberries, bags of chicken breast, protein, fried rice, and other items tangled inside the bag. The rice that usually comes with the delivery was discarded without even being taken out of its plastic container.

A said, "If someone packs their purchased items to prevent melting or spoilage, they should return the bag properly. I just can't understand why people behave like this," and added, "What do they think delivery workers are? Please take responsibility and dispose of your own trash."

Netizens who saw the story responded with comments such as, "Are they asking to throw it away together or what?", "This is why cockroaches come out of cooling bags," "Good intentions get diluted because of people like that," "It takes skill to collect and throw away like that," "Throwing away the delivered rice as is is shocking," and "Is it so hard to throw away plastic and food waste properly?"

Meanwhile, this is not the first time a story about unreasonable demands on delivery workers has come to light. In 2018, a post titled "Why Can't I Give Food Waste Bags to Delivery Workers?" went viral. The author, B, said, "Isn't it okay to give food waste to delivery workers? It would be great if they could throw away the trash on their way back," which drew heavy criticism. This kind of story has also been portrayed in dramas; in the tvN drama Misaeng, the main character Jang Geu-rae had to dispose of a customer's trash while delivering chicken.