How to Dispose of Garbage in Korea Part 1 (General Garbage & Food Waste)

One thing I often got confused about when I came to Korea was trash disposal.

In particular, it is not easy to distinguish between food waste and general waste.

And a while ago, my friend said that he paid a fine of about 100,000 won for putting watermelon peels in a regular garbage bag. I would like to tell you how far the standard of food waste is, and how to accurately distinguish what items should be thrown away in general waste.

food waste

- Food waste standards vary depending on whether animals can eat them. Since food waste is used as compost or feed for animals and livestock, food waste that can be consumed by animals or used as fertilizer is food waste, and if it cannot be used as feed or fertilizer, it is general waste.

• Fruit peels (bananas, tangerines, oranges, apples, mangoes, watermelons, melons, etc.) are also considered food waste. However, shells that are too hard are not applicable (pineapple shells, durian shells, etc.)

general garbage

- Items that are edible but are too hard for animals to eat are general garbage.

I'm going to clean up the items that are so hard that it's common trash.

• Nuts (peanuts, walnuts, chestnuts, etc.)
• meat bones (beef, pork, chicken, etc.)
• Shellfish shells (mussels, sea squirts, conch, clams, oysters, abalone, crab shells, fish bones, etc.)
• Fruits (peach, apricot, persimmon, cherry, mango, coconut, etc.)
• Egg shells (eg, duck eggs, quail eggs, etc.)

Scraps that are difficult to recycle (things that seem edible to animals but are not)

• Leftovers (green tea leftovers, herbal medicine leftovers, etc.)
• Dry skins and roots of vegetables (onions, garlic, green onions, etc.)
• Pastes (gochujang, soybean paste, etc.)
• Salty foods (salty foods like kimchi)

When throwing away, don't just throw it away in an envelope. Since you have to put it in a designated bag and throw it away, we will tell you which bag to use when disposing of garbage.

- Food waste can be disposed of in a food waste bag or there is a food waste bin in front of most houses.

- General garbage can be disposed of in the pay-as-you-go bag .

(When purchasing a bag, go to the mart and say, “Please give me a pay-as-you-go bag/food waste bag,” and tell me the size of the bag. The size is in litre units.)

It would be nice to know a lot of abbreviations these days. I also remember not understanding when I was talking to a friend in the past haha

***Reduce general waste – ils

Short for food waste – it's called umth .***

Now that I know how to distinguish between dark and dark, I will finish writing by hoping that you can comfortably throw away your trash and live a comfortable life in Korea.