Learnings about food waste management from South Korea

What South Korea has done

We learned among others that South Korea several decades ago decided to take a top down view to eradicate landfills and reform its waste management systems. Incinerators with energy recapture were built but more importantly consumers were coopted with good ‘separation at the source’ practices.

General waste needs to be discarded in special plastic bags. There is a levy on these bags to incentivize consumers to produce less waste and recycle more.

Food waste needs to go into separate bags, also levied. The one in the picture is a very small version. Increasingly in modern apartment complexes food waste had to be discarded in containers that are only accessible with a special card or tag, so that the container can keep track of quantities produced by household.

Recyclables can be discarded for free in South Korea, in many communities there are obligations to separate certain streams, such as PET bottles or cans.

Getting food waste separated out is a double edged sword. On the one hand, food waste is a resource that can be put to alternative use as South Korea is demonstrating. On the other hand, if it becomes mixed into other waste streams it is a ‘spoiler’. Putting it into incineration together with general waste is a problem, because it doesn’t burn well. Putting food waste together with recyclables is an even bigger problem, it renders many materials unrecyclable once they become food contaminated.

So what is the secret of South Korea’s success in recycling and waste management?

Having a national system clearly helps. In many countries the rules are different from one community to the next. That does little to instill routine practices.

Also, South Korea has a strong compliance culture. Putting food waste in your general waste or recycling bag gets you a stiff fine. Restaurants are quite disciplined about it to the point of consumers separating their food waste after a dinner. It has become the national psyche. Consumers also know that bones and egg shells are not food waste.

Having the right incentives clearly helps. Getting people to pay on a quantity basis for their general waste (rather than charging a flat service fee) clearly gets people interested in recycling more. It has to be coupled with strong compliance culture lest people throw their (paid) general waste in the (free) recycling stream.

Paying consumers for high quality recyclables helps even more as Droppie is demonstrating in the Netherlands. It is also the universal experience from implementing deposit return systems.

The Stridy team got a lot of inspiration out of its visit to Seoul. But the highlight was Korea’s unique approach and achievements in food waste processing.