Transforming Seoul from megacity to zero-waste community
Women from Seorae Global Village Center tend an urban garden in Yongsan Family Park in central Seoul on May 30. / Courtesy of Seorael Global Village Center
By Jon Dunbar
Seoul is a city in transition, grappling with waste disposal issues that leave garbage piled high on corners as garbage collectors and recycling companies struggle with or refuse to do their jobs. The city is doing what it can to reduce plastic waste, such as proposals to ban disposable umbrella covers and single-use plastic bags.
But reducing waste requires society-wide cooperation, according to Loren Da Costa, a graduate student of ethics, ecology and sustainable development at Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in France.
“It must concern each actor of one society, from the producers of consumer goods to the citizens that are active consumers,” said Da Costa, also an intern at the Asia Institute, a local think tank. “Empowered citizens are the actors of the current and future ecological transition. We need a complete shift in paradigm and it starts by changing our urban lifestyles.”
She's been in Seoul for three months so far, studying how one of the world's great megacities copes with sustainability and offering suggestions to achieve a “zero-waste community.”
Doing so means not just maximizing recycling, but also reducing consumption.
“Regarding production and consumption, this country, as many others, needs to shift from a linear production system ― we extract from Earth, we produce then we throw away ― to a circular production system where products are redesigned and we rethink the products life's cycle,” she said. “This type of system of production takes its inspiration from the biological, natural cycle. In the living world there is no landfill as materials flow, die and give life again as nutrients go back to the soil naturally and natural energy comes from the sun.”
She suggests making Korean companies interconnected ― “the waste of one company is the resource of another” ― and points to a team of Korean scientists who in 2014 published a study suggesting a method for converting disposed cigarette butts into a high-performing material for energy storage that could be used in computers, mobile devices, electrical vehicles and wind turbines.
Da Costa also calls for an end to planned obsolescence of electronic devices and animal-based food consumption, and an increase in urban farming.
“Informed citizens and consumers can make a huge difference by changing their own daily habits. I am still learning. For example, using tumblers, reusables, food containers or cloth bags,” Da Costa said.
“We must seek a philosophical, spiritual solution, defining what kind of human beings we want to be, which kind of citizens we want to become, in a nutshell to adopt a holistic vision and be aware we belong to nature.”
Da Costa will lecture on cities in transition this Thursday from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Seorae Global Village Center in southern Seoul.
The center started running the Zero Waste Forum this year, offering lectures on topics such as air pollution, over-packaging and urban gardening, followed by workshops such as on making DIY air purifiers, making bags out of recycled materials and achieving a zero-waste household. It also founded Zero Waste Seorae, intended to make the community more sustainable, which currently has a team of five women.
“Our contribution is going to be a teardrop faced with the sheer amount of industrial waste but a small act can create a chain of actions,” said Rim Zimie, director of the center.
The free event is open to the public but preregistration is required. Call (02) 2155-8916 or visit
or
meetup.com/Seoul-Zero-Waste-Meetup
for more information.