Living in South Korea means being forced to recycle, paying a fee and under threat of a fine. The Asian country has every interest in not throwing its food waste into any container. There is a whole system by which they are reused and those who do not comply could face heavy fines.
It’s a case directly opposite to that of USA. Here there is no such strict regulation, although there is an opposite case of an initiative that rewards us if we recycle. And it all starts with using a free app on iPhone.
How Korea promotes “paid” recycling
A priori, it seems very clear that almost the entire South Korean population recycles its food (97.5%, according to a study published by the BBC). At first glance, one might think that its inhabitants are the most civilized and applaud their environmental awareness. But that may not be the case.
The first thing is to explain why food is recycled. This does not mean that the banana peels will then be reused for other recipes. The South Korean government’s idea is to reduce landfills and convert much of the food waste into useful resources such as animal feed or energy production with biogas, etc.
And while we don’t doubt South Korea’s people’s love for the environment, the truth is that They don’t have much choice either. They must recycle if they do not want to be fined, which can reach figures close to 7,000 dollars (around 10,000,000 won).
This is something that applies to both individuals and businesses such as restaurants, even having surveillance cameras in many buildings to know if this is being respected or not.
However, there is something else: everyone has to pay for recycling. Yes, yes, you read that right. They are the ones who pay every time they have to throw away their food waste, even if they do it in the correct container. This, far from being crazy, makes sense, since its objective is to avoid food waste.
In USA there are completely opposite initiatives
In USA we don’t have as much of a recycling culture as the South Koreans. In fact, although the numbers are increasing every year, our numbers are far from reaching the overwhelming majority of 97.5% of Koreans. Perhaps the lack of culture in this sense is a cause. It is for this reason that initiatives were born They aim to do the opposite of what happens in South Korea: pay us to recycle..
Last year, Ecoembes launched a campaign with which They aim to promote recycling. To do this, they recommend downloading an application on iPhone which is extremely simple to operate.
It’s all about downloading the ‘RECICLOS’ app from the App Store (it’s free). After registering, you can now access its key function: scan the barcode of the recyclable products then take a photo of the respective container. This is what will let the system know that you recycled it correctly and give you a reward.
These rewards won’t help you get rich, but they provide a nice incentive for recycling, since you’ll be able to exchange them for gifts, raffles or donations to social causes. All this through the app. Of course, we’ve already warned you that you’ll need to be consistent in recycling and using the app if you really want to get rewards.
By | Xataka
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