You may also be subject to fines Recently, as cases of fines being imposed for ‘mistakes in separating waste’ have been continuously posted on SNS, communities, and YouTube, citizens’ anxiety is growing. In particular,
confusion has grown as it has become known that things that many people think are thrown away as general waste, such as rubber gloves and tomato tops, are actually classified as ‘different categories’ according to regulations. Recently, there have even been cases of people taking pictures of their own trash bags and reporting them, which has become a social controversy.
Are rubber gloves general waste or not?
In the case of Gangnam-gu, rubber gloves are classified as ‘non-burnable waste’ and must be disposed of separately. They must be placed in a ‘non-burnable waste bag’ or ‘non-combustible bag’ provided separately, not a volume-based bag. The problem is that this standard varies by local government. Not only Gangnam-gu, but also Gimhae-si and Hongseong-gun use separate bags, and some do not. Since the disposal standards are different for each local government, there are many cases where people who move from other regions or come on business trips throw things away without knowing the regulations and are fined 100,000 won.
Food Waste, Separation Standards That Are Known But Confusing
Just because something is leftover doesn’t mean it’s food waste.
Rather, the following are classified as general waste:
Eggshells
Soybean paste, red pepper paste
Clamshells, crab shells
Green onions/garlic peels Red pepper
powder, kimchi
Bones
On the other hand, the following are classified as food waste:
Banana peels
Spoiled rice
Almonds (without shells)
Flour, pancake mix, etc.
The standard is ‘whether it can be made into feed’. Foods that are too hard or salty cannot be made into animal feed, so they are treated as general waste.
The regulations are all different, and the publicity is lacking… Is this okay?
The biggest problem is that each local government has different standards for waste classification, and the way they provide guidance is overly passive. In most cases, they only post it on the district office homepage or end up distributing small notices. There is no way to properly inform people of such complicated and difficult regulations, and the way they immediately impose fines when caught is bound to increase dissatisfaction.
This controversy should be the opportunity for the government to establish a more unified separate disposal guideline and actively educate and promote it to citizens.
If we all pay a little more attention and follow the separate disposal regulations, we can protect the environment and avoid unfair fines.