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]
Typical thinking “Not my problem, someone else will deal with it.”
Liz
6 years ago
Ugh! There seems to be a natural law of sorts to trashing up places.
Trash attracts more trash.
MTB Rider
6 years ago
I swear some folks do it on purpose. I don’t mean the casual “Eh, I can’t find a trash can, I’ll just toss this wrapper out here,” but “I’m going to walk up this trail, steadily dumping my crap along the way.”
Was living up to my screen name up in Dongducheon, riding over the pass when I hit the first bit of dirt. Trash was everywhere, all in the middle of the path. It extended several miles long, all about the same density of rubbish. This wasn’t just a careless group hike, someone was deliberately trashing the trail.
Why do something like that? It happened once more, then dropped down to the usual wrapper or water bottle tossed to one side levels after a couple weeks.
Liz
6 years ago
I’m sure you’re right it’s deliberate, MTB Rider. I think it’s kind of like rage on the highways. After getting cut off a bunch of times, people start cutting off others. And so forth. Graffiti is rampant in parts of Italy for similar reasons. What’s one more spray painted penis with expletive on a wall? Happens in neighborhoods too. Once one person puts an ugly couch on the front porch and a broken down boat in the front yard, and then another leaves their Christmas crap out all year long, and then everyone lets their dogs crap all over everyone’s lawn…and so it begins.
Germany is clean in part due to strict litter laws. But you don’t really need the law once a place is that clean. Humans are natural mimics so social conventions tend to carry on..it takes some momentum to start the trash going.
Smokes at Work
6 years ago
Beaches we went to always had that problem but things they didn’t address are the lack of receptacles and a bad waste management plan. Now I’m not saying there are none at all but every beach we went to it was always way less than there needed to be. The ones they had were always overflowing like the dumpsters at Hannam Village. 😯
As for the recycling well that’s the RoK government’s fault for coming up with such a retarded approach to it. You don’t put the onus at the user-end to sort because of you’re going to get unsorted and improperly sorted trash (if you get it at all thanks to the littering and purposeful lack of receptacles) that you’ll have to have people go through anyway. Just accept the trash and do the sorting at centers under a standardized process. Of course taxes need to fund that though but I’d think they’d be ok with it as it removes the burden from the individuals and gets the job done correctly. 😀
setnaffa
6 years ago
Liz,Germany _was_ clean… now they have a less homogenous culture.
Typical thinking “Not my problem, someone else will deal with it.”
Ugh! There seems to be a natural law of sorts to trashing up places.
Trash attracts more trash.
I swear some folks do it on purpose. I don’t mean the casual “Eh, I can’t find a trash can, I’ll just toss this wrapper out here,” but “I’m going to walk up this trail, steadily dumping my crap along the way.”
Was living up to my screen name up in Dongducheon, riding over the pass when I hit the first bit of dirt. Trash was everywhere, all in the middle of the path. It extended several miles long, all about the same density of rubbish. This wasn’t just a careless group hike, someone was deliberately trashing the trail.
Why do something like that? It happened once more, then dropped down to the usual wrapper or water bottle tossed to one side levels after a couple weeks.
I’m sure you’re right it’s deliberate, MTB Rider. I think it’s kind of like rage on the highways. After getting cut off a bunch of times, people start cutting off others. And so forth. Graffiti is rampant in parts of Italy for similar reasons. What’s one more spray painted penis with expletive on a wall? Happens in neighborhoods too. Once one person puts an ugly couch on the front porch and a broken down boat in the front yard, and then another leaves their Christmas crap out all year long, and then everyone lets their dogs crap all over everyone’s lawn…and so it begins.
Germany is clean in part due to strict litter laws. But you don’t really need the law once a place is that clean. Humans are natural mimics so social conventions tend to carry on..it takes some momentum to start the trash going.
Beaches we went to always had that problem but things they didn’t address are the lack of receptacles and a bad waste management plan. Now I’m not saying there are none at all but every beach we went to it was always way less than there needed to be. The ones they had were always overflowing like the dumpsters at Hannam Village. 😯
https://www.stripes.com/news/military-steps-in-to-resolve-garbage-pile-up-at-seoul-s-hannam-village-1.118622
As for the recycling well that’s the RoK government’s fault for coming up with such a retarded approach to it. You don’t put the onus at the user-end to sort because of you’re going to get unsorted and improperly sorted trash (if you get it at all thanks to the littering and purposeful lack of receptacles) that you’ll have to have people go through anyway. Just accept the trash and do the sorting at centers under a standardized process. Of course taxes need to fund that though but I’d think they’d be ok with it as it removes the burden from the individuals and gets the job done correctly. 😀
Liz,Germany _was_ clean… now they have a less homogenous culture.