South Korea Recycles Over 95% Of Food Waste

Can We Do That Too? 

I was watching a video of a street food show over the weekend. So many people from all over the world come to explore exotic foods - it was very exciting. 

But I wondered where all that food waste was going. The landfill?  

I found a very interesting news article about South Korea which was one of my favorite episodes in the food show!

The headline said, “South Korea recycles over 95% of food waste.” That is hard to believe! 

In 2005, South Korea banned putting leftover food into landfills. In 2013, every Korean resident was required to dispose of their food waste properly and to pay for it by weight. Residents have been required to use special yellow bags which can be purchased from the supermarket to dispose of their food waste.

Food waste has long been a significant problem in South Korea since around 1990. Now, South Korea’s recycling rate is nearly one-hundred percent.

There are food waste trucks that go around and pick up the yellow bags every week and some areas even do curbside pickup every day. Then it is taken to a facility that processes the waste and separates the liquid which makes up about 80 percent. Then it is turned into biogas. The other scraps turn into food for  livestock and fertilizer. 

It is very impressive that 51 million people are doing this in South Korea. Can we do the same thing in the US, too?

Currently, in the U.S., only five states require food waste composting - and even in those states not everybody seems to be doing it. 

The easiest solution now is to reduce our food waste at home and tell adults what we learn from the Korean food waste article. 

Let's take responsibility for each individual to make a difference!