South Korea | How to recycle 98% of your food waste?

(Daejeon, South Korea) Every morning starting at 5 a.m., dozens of trucks haul more than 400 tons of smelly, sticky food waste from restaurants and homes to a facility the size of two football fields, which turns it into enough green energy to power about 20,000 homes.

The Daejeon bioenergy center is one of about 300 facilities that allow South Korea to recycle nearly all of its 15,000 tons of daily food waste, which can be composted to make fertilizer, feed livestock or turned into biogas, a type of renewable energy.

“This plant processes half of the daily food waste produced by the city of Daejeon,” said Jeong Goo-hwang, the plant’s general manager, speaking of the city of 1.5 million people located two hours from Seoul.

Without the plant, most of the waste would have been buried, polluting the soil and generating methane, a greenhouse gas far worse than carbon dioxide in terms of short-term global warming.

98%

When South Korea began tackling the problem 20 years ago, it threw away 98 percent of its food waste. Today, 98 percent of that waste is turned into animal feed, compost or energy, according to the South Korean Environment Ministry.

This was achieved by banning food waste from landfills and requiring all residents to separate their food waste from their garbage and recycling – and pay for this service through fees and fines.

South Korea is one of the few countries with a national food waste management system.

In Montreal, home composting is mandatory, but the city imposes few fines on those who refuse. In Quebec, 56% of food waste from all sectors is diverted from landfill.

A global problem

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), up to 31% of food is wasted worldwide, enough to feed more than a billion hungry people. Food waste is estimated to cause 6-8% of global pollution emissions.

According to UN figures analyzed by Our World in Data, the average person produces about 265 pounds of food scraps each year. An American produces 304 pounds, compared to 242 pounds for a South Korean. Malaysians top the list with 573 pounds, while Slovenians produce the world’s minimum of 134 pounds.

Deeply rooted habits

When first implemented, South Korea’s food waste policies sparked protests from a public forced to pay fines and fees for leftover meals.

Today, food recycling is part of daily life for the 50 million residents. Some buildings in Seoul are equipped with electronic bins that weigh food waste.

Residents log their waste using a digital card and are billed each month for the amount of leftovers they throw away. Others buy government compost bags for as little as 10 cents and toss them in curbside bins. Violators who mix their food with household waste are subject to fines.

Lee Jaeyoung, 35, who lives near Seoul and uses government food waste bags, said throwing away leftovers separately has become just another household chore. “I feel a little bit of satisfaction knowing that I’m helping to reduce carbon emissions,” he said.

Recycling practices must also adapt to Korean customs, particularly regarding banchan, the multiple side dishes served with a typical Korean meal that are often left half-eaten in restaurants.

Yun-jung Ryew, owner of Dandelion Bap-jip, an all-you-can-eat buffet in Seoul, offers about a dozen banchan as part of a meal that costs 7,000 won, or about $7.

She has tried to reduce food waste – and therefore the fees she pays for its disposal. She squeezes the liquid out of leftovers before recycling them and reminds her customers of the environmental and economic impact of food waste. A banner even states that customers who leave leftovers on their plates pay a small fee.

With Jean-Thomas Léveillé, The Press

This article was published in the Washington Post.

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