Mountains of Trash After Every Festival... Seoul Councilor Calls for Waste Reduction Guidelines

Concerns are growing over the need to establish waste reduction guidelines, as festivals and marathon events held in downtown Seoul increasingly leave roads and plazas buried in trash once they end. Councilor Lee Ui-an of the Seoul Metropolitan Council (Democratic Party of Korea, Dongdaemun 3rd District) raised the issue of waste generated by large-scale events during a government affairs inspection of the Climate and Environment Headquarters at the 340th regular session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, urging the creation of 'waste reduction guidelines.'

"As festivals and marathon events within Seoul have surged, the city's downtown roads and plazas are suffering from piles of trash as tall as a person after each event ends," the councilor said. During the inspection, photos of the Seoul Race marathon held at Seoul Plaza on October 11 were presented as evidence.

The core of the problem, it was pointed out, is not whether the trash is collected but the sheer volume generated. "Even if event organizers collect the trash afterward, the sheer amount of waste produced at a single event — disposable paper cups, plastic PET bottles, cardboard boxes, and plastic bags — is absurdly enormous, and that itself is a serious problem," the councilor noted.

Seoul currently requires city-hosted events with more than 1,000 participants to submit a waste management plan in advance and a results report afterward. However, Councilor Lee assessed that such document-based checks alone are insufficient to reduce total waste volume.

As an alternative, the councilor proposed introducing a 'waste cleanup and site restoration deposit system.' Under this scheme, event organizers would deposit funds in advance and receive them back only after restoring the venue to its original condition. He also called for the creation and distribution of specific waste reduction guidelines that would control the use of materials and reduce waste output starting from the event planning stage.

"Seoul must not limit itself to simply handling venue rentals, reporting, and permits," the councilor stressed. "As befits Seoul's status as a climate and environmental city, it must establish strong reduction measures that fundamentally cut the amount of trash generated by each and every event."