Collected Daily by Seongnam City's Household Waste Contractors
Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province announced on December 23 that it will invest 250 million won next year to install paper carton collection boxes at all 426 apartment complexes.
AI-generated image of a paper carton collection bin exclusive to Seongnam City. Provided by Seongnam City
While there have been cases where some local governments, in cooperation with environmental groups or companies, have installed and operated exclusive paper carton collection boxes on a trial basis, Seongnam City is the first in the nation to push for installation in every apartment complex using its municipal budget.
Seongnam City's exclusive paper carton collection boxes are rectangular metal structures covered with collection bags and will be installed at 2,500 recycling stations within 426 apartment complexes (3,357 buildings, 211,331 households).
Residents are required to remove straws and plastic from the paper cartons, rinse them thoroughly with water, flatten them, and then dispose of them in the exclusive collection boxes.
The paper cartons collected in these boxes will be picked up daily at designated times by Seongnam City's household waste collection and transportation contractors and sent to paper mills, where they will be recycled into products such as toilet paper or facial tissues.
Recycling one ton of paper cartons in this way has the same effect as planting 35 pine trees that are 30 years old.
This is equivalent to reducing 1.2 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
An official from Seongnam City stated, "Paper cartons are often mixed with regular paper or discarded as household waste, resulting in a low recycling rate of 12%. By promoting separate disposal and increasing the recycling rate of high-quality natural pulp paper cartons, we aim to create a virtuous cycle of resource circulation together with our citizens."
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