I am really not surprised by this at all considering how littering still does not seem to have much social stigma attach to it yet in Korea:
The crowd at the 2017 Seoul International Fireworks Festival on Saturday were treated to breathtaking blooms of fire-flowers, as they are called in Korean.
Teams representing the US, Italy and Korea took turns showing their best-coordinated fireworks.
Unfortunately, as events like this attract large crowds, the following morning showed the not-so-beautiful side to the show.
In the area street cleaners faced mounds of garbage haphazardly thrown away by the 1 million-strong crowd that attended the event.
In order to prevent this, Hanwha, who organized the event, had precautionary measures in place on the night of the event; plastic refuse bags were handed out and warnings were issued to only dispose of waste at designated zones. However, it seems the effort largely went ignored. [Korea Herald]
It seems many people’s attitude is why walk over to a garbage can when I can just throw it on the ground for someone else to pick up after me.
This article focuses on the trash left on Korean beaches, but the litter problem isn’t just isolated to beaches. This same problem is also occurring in Korea’s mountains where picnickers leave others to clean up their messes as well:
Street cleaners sort trash at Haeundae Beach in Busan, July 29. / Yonhap
From beer cans to water bottles, leftover chicken, watermelon rinds and dirty clothes, major beaches across the nation are suffering from summer vacationers leaving tons of trash mounting daily.
Local governments have stepped up efforts to clean the mess, putting in more manpower and expanding cleaning hours, but had little to no success.
At Millak Waterside Park in Busan, collected trashes during weekdays an average of 2.5 tons of trash is collected each day, according to local officials. This doubles on weekends.
It takes four hours for 10 city street cleaners and volunteers to sort through and properly recycle the trash.
“I’m OK with people enjoying their vacation by eating and drinking near the beach,” said a city street cleaner. “What I don’t understand is why they disappear without cleaning up their mess.” [Korea Times]
