What are the challenges of implementing pay-as-you-throw food waste programs and how can they be improved?

Korea’s food culture is characterized by excessive serving and waste, which leads to economic losses and environmental pollution. To solve this problem, a pay-as-you-throw food waste system was introduced, but confusion and problems have arisen in the early stages of implementation. The problem needs to be solved by fully implementing RFID in multi-family housing, clear waste classification standards and high fines, and partially allowing small families to use garbage grinders to solve waste disposal and odor problems.

 

Korea’s food culture is praised by food critics around the world for allowing individuals to choose the side dishes they want to eat, but there are still many customs that are not in line with the values of modern society, such as serving so much food that the upper limbs bend, and considering it polite to leave rice. These issues are not limited to Korean food, but can also be seen at meals with friends, work dinners, and blind dates. Many people order more food than they can finish in a “try and see” mentality, and when they leave, there are tons of food left on the table that could have been eaten by a few more people. Most of these leftovers are disposed of as food waste, which amounts to more than 4.7 million tons a year. Disposing of food waste costs more than KRW 8 trillion every year, and the amount of food waste is still increasing. This is not only a huge economic loss, but also a source of environmental pollution. In addition, with the promulgation of the ‘Enforcement Rules for the Marine Environment Management Act’ on December 29, 2011, as a result of the London Convention, wastewater cannot be dumped into the ocean, and Korea, which used to dump most of its wastewater into the ocean, has to find a new solution. In order to reduce food waste, the Ministry of Environment decided to implement the food waste pay-as-you-throw system, which had been partially piloted in seven local governments since 2010, in all local governments by 2013.
Unlike the flat-rate system, which charged the same fee regardless of the amount of waste generated, the pay-as-you-throw system charges a fee proportional to the amount of waste generated. There are three main ways that the pay-as-you-throw system is operated: using RFID chips, issuing payment ID cards, and using special bags for food waste. The RFID chip method is to attach an RFID chip to a dedicated food waste collection box to measure the amount of food waste disposed of, and when the source card carried by the person disposing of the waste is photographed, the amount of waste is recorded on the chip, and the disposal fee is charged according to the amount of waste recorded on the card. With a pay-as-you-throw card, multi-unit dwellings such as apartments and townhouses can continue to use their existing communal food waste collection bins, but add a pay-as-you-throw card to each full bin. You can purchase a food stamp at any grocery or convenience store, and the cost of the food stamp is included in the purchase price. The multifamily property manager can place a food stamp or food waste sticker on the bin whenever needed, and the garbage truck will come and pick up the food waste. Finally, food waste bags are just like the regular garbage bags you’re used to, with the cost of disposal included in the bag itself. All three of these methods are meant to encourage citizens to reduce their own food waste by charging a fee based on the amount of waste they produce.
However, the sudden expansion of the pay-as-you-throw system, which was previously implemented voluntarily by local governments, has caused a lot of confusion among citizens. Some citizens know that the system has changed, but due to the lack of publicity, they don’t know how to dispose of their waste, and some even don’t know that the system has changed and continue to dispose of their waste as before, resulting in fines. In addition, multi-family households are facing conflicts over the distribution of the food waste disposal fee that they pay together. With all of these negative side effects, pay-as-you-throw food waste programs need to be improved.
Currently, there are two methods of implementing pay-as-you-throw in multi-family housing: RFID and payment stamps. The RFID method has the advantage of being able to accurately identify the amount of food waste per household and does not cause odors in the neighborhood, while the payment card method has the advantage of being able to use the existing food waste collection bins, so there is almost no replacement cost for the system. The core of the pay-as-you-throw food waste system is that individuals pay for the amount of food they throw away, but in the case of multi-family housing, the purpose of the pay-as-you-throw system cannot be fully realized with the payment card method because the food waste is disposed of jointly. In multi-family housing using the payment card, the food waste is disposed of jointly and the cost is divided by the number of households. This results in some households paying more for disposal than they produce and others paying less for disposal than they produce. This can lead residents to think, “It’s only stupid to throw away less when we’re all sharing,” and can lead to indiscriminate waste disposal, which defeats the purpose of pay-as-you-throw laws. In fact, a pilot project in Dobong-gu showed that the reduction in food waste in multi-family houses was 3-5%, which is significantly lower than the 20-25% reduction in single-family houses. The freezing of food waste collection bins and the resulting odor is also a major controversy in multi-family houses that operate under the pay-by-payment system. Unlike the daily collection of food waste in the past, the pay-as-you-go system requires a special sticker to be placed on the bin to be collected when it is full, so food waste can sit for days before the bin is full. The wastewater contained in the food waste freezes and expands in volume, breaking the bin, leaking out of the bin, and causing odors in the environment. In fact, since the beginning of this year, when the pay-as-you-go system was implemented, there have been a number of incidents of food waste freezing, resulting in a surge in complaints from residents. Not only in winter, but also in the middle of summer, the accumulated food will quickly decay in hot weather, causing a strong odor and attracting insects. In addition, the problem of freezing is not only odorous, but it also negates the economic benefits of the RFID system, which was chosen as an alternative to the dedicated sticker system to save initial implementation costs, by offsetting the cost of replacing the collection box. While the economic benefits of using a pay-by-sticker system have been realized, the freezing problem has caused more harm than good.
Therefore, RFID should be fully implemented as a pay-as-you-throw method for multi-family housing. By using the RFID method instead of the payment ID method, which has the above problems, residents will be able to accurately measure the amount of food waste generated by each household, which will encourage them to reduce their own food waste, and they will also be able to solve the problem of freezing and odor by collecting food waste in the collection box every day.
Another problem with implementing a pay-as-you-throw system is that the definition of food waste and garbage is vague: under the current law, fish bones are food waste if they have more than 50% flesh on them, but less than that is garbage; vegetables such as green onions and watercress are garbage if they have dirt on them, but food waste if they have been washed. Few people, even housewives who have been doing this for decades, know these details, and everyone has a different idea of what is food waste and what is not. Throwing food waste into a regular garbage bag means that the garbage dump has to sort it out again, or even send the whole garbage truck back with food waste mixed in, which is a waste of tax dollars, which are eventually passed on to citizens as fines. If you look around you, you’ll see people who don’t even bother to check how much meat is left on their fish when they throw away their food waste, and you’ll see people who throw away egg shells and chicken bones without knowing whether they’re food waste or regular trash. Clearly categorizing food waste is also important from a recycling perspective. Only about 18% of food waste is recycled into feed or compost, and the reason for this low figure is that it is not properly sorted.
Therefore, it is necessary to specify the food waste sorting criteria on the collection bins and food waste bags and actively promote it through public service announcements. If the criteria is written on the food waste collection bins and food waste pay-as-you-go bags and promoted to the public through public service announcements, it will lead to better separation of food waste, save taxes that are wasted on waste separation costs, and greatly help the recycling of food waste into feed and fertilizer.
Currently, fines for littering food waste are set at a low level. The Seoul Metropolitan Government sets the fine for littering at 50,000 won for the first offense and 100,000 to 200,000 won for the second offense, which is relatively low considering that most other fines are in the 200,000 won range and that the system is still being established at the beginning of the pay-as-you-throw system. This low level of penalty may encourage people to litter. The change from the previous flat-rate or free disposal system to a system that charges a fee each time food waste is disposed of makes citizens feel like they have to pay for something they didn’t have to pay for before. As a result, even if they don’t know the difference between food waste and general garbage, as in the case mentioned above, they may dispose of food waste by putting it in opaque plastic paper and placing it in a relatively cheap general garbage bag. In addition, in some cases, they may even litter. This was one of the biggest concerns before the implementation of the pay-as-you-throw law, and in fact, in Incheon’s Seo-gu and Gyeyang-gu, the amount of illegal dumping has skyrocketed since the implementation of the pay-as-you-throw law, causing not only an aesthetically unpleasant sight, but also a foul odor that makes residents frown. To prevent this, each city and county has hired its own anti-littering enforcement officers and set up anti-littering days, but the punishment level is low, making it ineffective. In addition, to prevent littering, some multi-family houses have posted warning signs that say, “No outside food waste is allowed, and if caught, you will be charged the full cost of disposal,” which is an example of how residents have increased their own punishment to eradicate littering due to low punishment levels. However, this can have the added problem of creating tension by making people view each other with suspicion. Furthermore, unlike regular garbage, it’s hard to tell who dumped food waste by looking at the contents, so even if you come across it, you can’t identify the source.
To prevent this from happening, the government should set a high level of fines to eradicate illegal dumping. Of course, this should be done after national publicity about the food waste pay-as-you-throw system and food waste classification standards. The high level of fines should help stabilize the system in the early stages of implementation, and the purpose of the pay-as-you-throw system should be to genuinely engage the public, not just blindfold them.
In Korea, the use of garbage grinders is illegal. Garbage disposals, which allow people to grind food waste directly in the sink and dispose of it down the drain, have already been introduced and used in many households in the United States and Japan. The introduction of garbage disposals can help solve the odor problems experienced by single-person households and nuclear families with fewer members after the implementation of pay-as-you-throw food waste. Nuclear families are forced to store food waste indoors because the amount of food waste generated is small and there is no place to store it while the garbage bags are filled. To deal with the odors that arise, many students and office workers now store food waste in the freezer as a last resort, or only fill the bag to about 10% of its capacity to prevent mold from forming.
To solve the food waste disposal problems and odors of these small families, we need to legalize the use of garbage grinders in part. In 1995, Korea’s sewer penetration rate was only around 40%, so there was a lack of infrastructure for the grinder to be used, but in 2012, the sewer penetration rate exceeded 91%. Considering that Korea’s sewers have many confluences, selectively allowing the use of food grinders only for small families who do not have the space to store food waste and whose output is low would kill two birds with one stone: it would reduce the amount of food waste and solve the complaints of citizens who suffer from odors.
In this article, we have discussed the shortcomings of the current pay-as-you-throw system that is being implemented as a way to reduce food waste, the problems it has caused, and how it can be improved. The pay-as-you-throw system was implemented too quickly due to the London Convention, which Korea is required to fulfill this year. As a result, many citizens are confused and side effects such as illegal dumping are occurring everywhere. In order to stabilize the pay-as-you-throw system, the relevant ministries need to identify the causes of the current problems and come up with improvement measures accordingly. Also, it is important to make citizens aware of the importance of the environment and lay the foundation for them to participate in environmental conservation through the pay-as-you-throw system, rather than just telling them to participate.