Waste management in South Korea involves the appropriate treatment, transport, and disposal of the waste. Since recycling is mandatory in the country, recycled items are disposed of in any clear plastic bag and divided by items. Through effective management, South Korea, which is working toward a zero-waste society, saw a reduction in waste generation. Although it may seem like South Korea has always worked toward a zero-waste society, history tells a different story. In the middle of the 1980s, recycling started as the Waste Management Law was established. By enforcing several more acts to reduce waste and educating people, South Korea slowly made a progress that made a recycling culture that is a standard in the country today.
In The New York Times, an important question has been posed: “If you are a New Yorker and sort your recycling at home, as city law mandates, you probably wonder, as you rinse bottles and stack junk mail and scrub yogurt containers: Does all this effort make a difference?” All the efforts could be made at an individual level. However, if structural change does not happen, all those individual efforts are futile.
In this piece, I would like to address how some states in the United States can work toward a zero-waste society (what it takes to develop a habit of recycling) and what they can learn from many challenges that South Korea had to face while getting used to the waste management system.