The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on the 24th that it distributed a standard waste management local government ordinance bill to 25 districts early this month. The move is intended to reduce event waste during the spring peak season for large-scale festivals and events.
The ordinance bill distributed this time includes a requirement for districts to establish an event waste reduction plan before events. The reduction plan also includes management standards across the entire process, such as ▲ using products suitable for waste reduction and recycling ▲ measures for reusing and recycling event items and for separate collection of waste ▲ an evaluation plan for event waste reduction.
This type of ordinance bill is the same as the Seoul Waste Management local government ordinance revised in Sept. 2024. At the time, the city made it mandatory, through the ordinance revision, to ban single-use items at city- and affiliate-led events with an expected daily attendance of 1,000 or more. Over the past two years, a total of 54 city-led events complied with this.
In addition, through a program supporting reusable containers at festival sites, a total of 4.49 million single-use containers were replaced from 2022 through last year. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said this effectively reduced about 126 tons of waste.
Kwon Min, head of the Seoul Climate and Environment Headquarters, said, "We hope all festivals held across Seoul will take root as an eco-friendly culture that considers the environment," and added, "We will work closely with the districts to make Seoul a world-class resource-circulating city."