On December 18, Incheon City announced that it is proactively implementing policies to reduce single-use products in preparation for the direct landfill ban on municipal solid waste in the Seoul metropolitan area, which will take effect in January next year.
The city plans to fundamentally reduce the amount of municipal solid waste generated by having the public sector take the lead and encouraging citizen participation, thereby establishing a stable waste management system even after the landfill ban is enforced.
To this end, since last year, the city has established a reusable cup sharing system in public offices and encouraged civil servants to use one tumbler per person. A total of 52 related facilities are currently in operation, including 18 reusable cup rental boxes, 20 return boxes, and 14 tumbler washers.
In addition, in order to expand the elimination of single-use products throughout citizens' daily lives, the city has created environments for using reusable containers in various everyday spaces such as local baseball stadiums, funeral halls, movie theaters, festivals and event venues, food delivery, and public campsites.
As a result of these efforts, the city estimates that more than 2.4 million reusable containers were used this year, reducing municipal solid waste by 34 tons.
Furthermore, the proportion of single-use cups brought into public offices in Incheon City and its 10 districts and counties was found to be 7.57% this year, a decrease of 14.54 percentage points compared to the previous year. This figure is significantly lower than that of Seoul (28.01%) and Gyeonggi Province (33.65%). In particular, the city noted that the rate of single-use cup entry has remained below 1% even though there are many cafes concentrated around the city hall.
An official from Incheon City stated, "The direct landfill ban on municipal solid waste that will be implemented next year marks an important turning point that demands a structural transformation of the city," adding, "We will continue to expand policies focused on reduction and reuse in order to move toward becoming a resource-circulating city that does not rely on landfilling."
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