Sunday, November 15, 2015

Go Green Korea!

People often say they want to be eco-friendly but saying is one thing, doing is another. Korea, however, is pretty damn serious about recycling and sorting their trash. This definitely took me by surprise.

How did I learn? Not from a friend's advice, but through personal experience.
I stayed at hotels my first two months in Seoul so the simple task of taking out the trash never occurred to me. Now that I am living in an actual apartment building, one where the lobby guy does not speak English and refuses to try to understand me, this has now become a painful and daunting task.

A week of furniture shopping and unpacking left me with A LOT of trash and cardboard boxes. We usually leave these in the little side rooms of the floor where people generally take the trash down. Or so I thought. I did this twice in a week until one day, these signs magically appeared around the walls of the little side room next to my apartment door. I suspect that they didn't know where I'm truly from, but to ensure I get the message, the signs were in Korean, Chinese and English.



I now clearly know I've been illegally taking out the trash. They now have CCTV recording me so I should take it to the basement B2 to avoid fines. B2 has a huge garbage room where it is sorted by pure food waste, general waste, paper, plastic and cardboards. I've been told you need a special waste bag for food only, nothing waste. I have failed to secure this "bag" after a few attempts to purchase it at the local convenient stores near me. I did successfully order a food waste bin online, so I will eventually get on buying that bag.

I'm impressed Korea, go green!



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