By This is actually a common complaint I used to hear from Koreans:
Some U.S. servicemembers living off-base in South Korea are routinely violating host-nation trash disposal laws, South Korean authorities say.
Violators are failing to use the trash bags required by Korean law and are not sorting recyclable items as required, the officials said.
The problem is occurring in communities where numbers of U.S. military personnel live off base. Those include Uijeongbu, Dongducheon, Seoul, Pyeongtaek, Waegwan and Daegu, but it’s been especially frequent in Pyeongtaek and Waegwan, said Lee Min-hyon, manager of Pyeongtaek City’s waste management division.
Most off-base residents comply with the law, but others are continual offenders.
“We see these violations every day,” Lee said. [Stars & Stripes]
Read the rest at the link, but when I lived at an off post apartment the ajushi at the guard shack just about always came over to make sure I put everything in the right can even though I was well versed where everything went. It really isn’t that hard to do, which leads me to believe that if someone who has been in Korea a while and is still not sorting their trash the Koreans are justified in their complaints.
3:49 pm on August 23rd, 2010 1
The US personnel living off-base has no excuse not to abide by the law.
You can buy the needed trash bags at most commisaries, maybe USFK should include a brief on this for all people wanting to live off base. I had no problem with this since it's inception, it just takes a little more effort (little) to empty the trash. Fine their arses!
4:29 pm on August 23rd, 2010 2
Most commissaries? Not in the Yongsan Commissary. Besides, every ward/gu has their own unique bags (last time I checked)which can only be used within their jurisdiction. Or….you can do like me and haul your trash into the base and deposit said trash in dumpster.
I justify it by remembering that my unsorted trash is being sorted by some Halmuni working for some Company that the Base uses to sort the trash for them. So….I'm helping the elderly! 
4:33 pm on August 23rd, 2010 3
This is almost comical, I am sure there are many U.S. personnel that are not using the proper trash bags. My question is are the majority of Koreans using the proper trash bags? The funny thing outside of Cp Humphreys even if you do buy the proper trash bags and place recycled items where they should be they have a garbage truck that comes and throws in all at once where it is smashed and compacted. So much for recycling, also on the highway, service areas/rest areas, where they have containers plainly marked for glass, plastic, and aluminum, just watch and look where Koreans throw their trash. I really don't think that most Koreans are educated on recycling, take a drive towards the country side and you will see trash left on the side of the road. I agree that the americans living here should abide by the countries laws, but when they see the locals come out at night and dump there trash not using the proper bags, can you blame them?
4:37 pm on August 23rd, 2010 4
My question is are the majority of Koreans using the proper trash bags?
They sure as hell are in my apartment complex. If you don't do it right, you will get a stern talking to by the ajŏshis, which is why I went into painstaking detail with my non-Korean-speaking tenants when they moved in.
Where I live the situation bears little resemblance to what Scoobydoo described.
4:45 pm on August 23rd, 2010 5
@Kushibo Just take a trip to Humphries late at night where they have trash receptacles on the main streets, not in the high rise apartments you will see the farmers dumping trash in all kinds of bags.
4:54 pm on August 23rd, 2010 6
Well, you talked about a "majority of Koreans," and that would be apartment dwellers, not rural farmers.
Where I live, those that don't follow the rules are very much the exception. In our 200-unit complex there are virtually no renegades, and in the house-filled neighborhood nearby, it's probably at least 19-to-1 in favor of law-abiding trash separators.
But the outliers often are the stuff about which opinions are made. Just as ten drivers may wait patiently in line for a left turn signal and one driver deciding to cut the front of the line make "Koreans are bad drivers" a dominant meme, I guess the trash hurlers are doing the same out in the burgs.
But ultimately, the existence of trash law breakers in the Korean population excuses no GI whatsoever, especially when most Koreans are generally following the rules.
By the way, did I ever mention the foreigners in the house that used to stand next to my old house? They didn't want to pay for garbage bags when the new system was announced, so they decided to incinerate their garbage, and in the process accidentally burned the old house down.
5:22 pm on August 23rd, 2010 7
I see an awful lot of Koreans throwing their trash away on base. I think this law is broken by GI's and Koreans but for the most part is followed. I think the system of having to buy trash bags is a great way to pay for the system. I do agree that if you go to any rest stop and watch the recycle containers you will see 1 out of 10 maybe throwing their trash in the right container. The reason Koreans throw their trash away the way they should in apartments and houses is because the trash collectors will leave it if it isn't done right. If it were up to n honor system to throw away trash in a recycle bin I doubt most Koreans would adhere to it, I think that goes for pretty much every nationality though.
5:32 pm on August 23rd, 2010 8
Kushibo, I agree that many Koreans comply but many do not. I had many conversations with the security guards at my old apartment explaining that mixed trash was not mine. The contents alone should have been a tipoff for them. Soju Bottles, Kimchi containers, tobacco butts, etc. I eat Kimchi in restaurants but rarely buy it, same for soju and I don't smoke.
6:31 pm on August 23rd, 2010 9
I would have to agree with Kushibo, the majority of the Koreans I've seen in area I lived in just outside of Osan AB separated their trash and this was on a street side dump site, not the mega apartment type.. This year we moved to one of those mega apartments and there also not separating is the exception to the rule. I know Osan Commissary has the bags for around Songtan-si, and it's not all that impossible to find your ward/gu at the xx-mart/store just around the corner. All in all we don't need to give other hosts anymore stuff to complain about. So Kim Farmer dumps his/her trash with out sorting it, should we do the same also. Granted I'd laugh my arse off if I every see a candlelight vigil against USFK personnel concerning improper disposal of "Household" Trash.. Bottom line it's a good idea to recycle, so get with the program, if not move back on base.
8:12 pm on August 23rd, 2010 10
I live in a mega-high-rise-complex right outside the gates of Yongsan and we very methodically sort our trash – a leftover from being in Germany. From what I've seen, the rule-breakers are about even on both sides. There are an inordinate number of maintenance guys in this complex and at least one of them is manning the trash point Monday thru Saturday during business hours. When dude is down there, the few people that throw away their stuff do so by the rules. But what the renegade dumpers do is just wait until dude goes home and then throw their stuff anywhere, trashing the joint. On Sunday, it's a free-for-all – people just throw all kinds of stuff in any pile there is. The worst offenders are the movers – when they move somebody in or out of an apartment here, they wait until no one is around at the trash point and then do a dump-and-run before they clear out in their trucks. I think the trash-point dudes are used to all of this, because they all congregate at the trash point first thing every Monday morning and go through the painstaking task of separating all that stuff out.
If they're looking at getting better compliance, then I think the Germans have that one down. If somebody put the wrong thing in the wrong dumpster next to your building, Hans and Franz simply dumped it out on the lawn in front of your building and you found all of that trash waiting there for you when you got home. Most of the buildings there had 6 to 8 families in them, and so when the dumpster got tossed, everyone would cast a suspicious eye on everyone else as they trekked to the dumpster with their stuff, and that would usually end the 'renegade dumping'. The only problem here, I guess, is that the trash points are more consolidated so perhaps that wouldn't work as well. They would need a collection point on each floor or every so many floors to better identify the violators. Anyway, just some food for thought…or for disposal…hehe
8:31 pm on August 23rd, 2010 11
About 10 years ago, I had a landlord outside of Humphreys who stopped me from sorting the trash and took my bag away from me. I didn't know what the heck he was doing but I let him take it, anyway. I came home around 2:00 am the next night and he was burning a pile of trash in an empty lot across the street, including my stuff. He was a tough, old-school guy; I imagine that his bonfire was some sort of act of disobedience against Kim Daejung and the liberals, charging him w200 for trash bags.
8:36 pm on August 23rd, 2010 12
TRASH IS TRASH, RECYCLABLES are just that!! Seperate and Bag,,,its easy,,Anyway, why dont they put more education out there for the Korean sportsmen who throw their trash around rivers, lakes and the reservoirs. It`s a shame that it has to be seen. Sure you can talk about seperating trash, educating people on that and such…MAYBE they need to educate on NOT dumping trash at the water areas. Not Just PROPERLY USING THE ROGHT TRASH BAG.
9:29 pm on August 23rd, 2010 13
I thought I read that the stores which charge for grocery bags (Emart for example) are going to start using bags that can be used as garbage bags.
9:40 pm on August 23rd, 2010 14
The system the Koreans use is a good one. I live in a apartment complex right outside Osan AB. There are only Americans living here and they violate the trash rule ALL THE TIME. They don't use the white trash bags, they dump their trash in the factory dumpster next door, they almost never separate the plastics/glass/metal etc. They also throw furniture, pizza boxes, etc, expecting it'll get picked up. Sometimes the trash people refuse (pun intended lol) to pick up so the landowner usually has the job of cleaning everything up.
One thing, my landowner really doesn't take the time to brief the new american tenants on how to operate the Heater, A/C, etc. Nor do they explain the Korean trash system. I know the landowners well and if they gave a shit about anything but greed the whole system would EASILY run like clockwork. Forcing the American to solve everything on their own through trial and error..well, that's just par for the course isn't it?
9:47 pm on August 23rd, 2010 15
At Hannam Village, they will give you 20L and 50L bags for free, yet people won't use them. Lazy parents also like to make their kids take out the trash. That leads to nasty puddles in the elevators and trails through the first floor, across the breezeway and down the ramp or steps. Then, the kids can't get the bags into the dumpsters, so it gets thrown on the ground and then strewn everywhere by the birds and semi-feral cats.
11:16 pm on August 23rd, 2010 16
DPRK, it must be the airforce scum.
11:48 pm on August 23rd, 2010 17
Actually Hamilton, a lot of them work at Camp Humphrey's.
3:56 am on August 24th, 2010 18
Maybe IMCOMKoreaRegion should upload video on Youtube on how to 'dump' trash in ROK.
4:51 am on August 24th, 2010 19
There's nothing that Americans can ever do wrong, because Americans are better people who don't need to follow Korean law.
4:52 am on August 24th, 2010 20
John wrote:
Maybe IMCOMKoreaRegion should upload video on Youtube on how to ‘dump’ trash in ROK.
A PowerPoint slide show would be more effective.
5:06 am on August 24th, 2010 21
Ok everyone, good job so far not feeding the troll. Great show of restraint.
6:35 am on August 24th, 2010 22
There just plain lazy. If they "don't know better" they don't have the intelligence to live outside the borders of the USA. I would take the trash bag, open their apartment and rip the bag open, filling their apartment with the garbage.
6:36 am on August 24th, 2010 23
I know, no need to point it out.
1:31 pm on August 24th, 2010 24
It's almost comical what passes for recycling here. Back home, you better have your wet and dry food waste separated from all recyclables, which must also be sorted, if you don't want a hefty fine.
7:26 pm on August 24th, 2010 25
Really? These people have to be idiots. Recyclables in one bag, food wastes in another and all the leftovers in another bag. 3 bags is all you need.
Recyclable material do not have to be put out in the local ward designated bags but needs to be in some kind of bag or box.
What can't be recycled should be put in the local ward designated bags(usually white or blue) as well as food waste(usually orange).
11:30 pm on December 27th, 2010 26
Fifty seven years ago, Trash was not a problem. Each unit had a deep pit close by and dumped their trash then covered it up. Now Human stuff was another story!
Korea is much more pretty than it was then. Happy New Year to all of you.
1:57 am on December 28th, 2010 27
Funny reading about this. When I was there, we were actually encouraged to throw anything and everything away, so the Koreans could dig through our trash and get something they could use, eat, or sell, since we were prohibited from directly giving them anything directly.
We'd go the field for training exercises, and mama-san would already be there waiting for us, with two baskets (one of food, one of drinks, everything $1.00 each), and a blanket laid out on the ground to catch all of our brass.
Korea sure has changed in the last 35 years.
11:06 am on December 28th, 2010 28
Hey Lemmy… there ≠ they’re ≠ their (in ref to your 1325 24 Aug post)
Hey Tom… Please explain: "There’s nothing that Americans can ever do wrong, because Americans are better people who don’t need to follow Korean law."
If you are implying Americans generally think of themselves as people who are too good to follow the laws of their host nation, then I resent your comment. If I am mistaken as to your meaning, please explain.
12:37 pm on December 28th, 2010 29
Your should always try to separate and recycle whenever possible. My only complaint is that in Daegu the trash containers have no English letters or even pictures on them. I can usually guess on which one is metal / glass / paper but they often have two different plastic ones and telling them apart is a PITA. It wasn't until my gf moved in that she translated the literal meaning so I could properly separate the plastic.
Most American's don't recycle in the USA, I can see how the mentality of just throwing everything into one bag and chunking is stuck in some people.
4:01 pm on December 28th, 2010 30
CoeCoe,
I know you are new… but there are some important guidelines to be aware of.
1. Don't attack the technical aspects of people's writing unless they are bragging about their education or needlessly attacking the writing instead of the message. There are many quickly-written comments here and there are a number of highly-trained posters who spent/spent their time working for a living instead of polishing their writing skills… meaning their sword is mightier than their pens.
2. Do not respond to anything Tom writes… or he will have you huffing and puffing exasperated posts in response to his coldly calculated nonsense. Basically, Tom will make you his biatch and you won't even realize it.
3. You might wish to look up some information on this thing they call "satire" before taking some of the posts around here too seriously.
Good luck!
5:16 pm on December 28th, 2010 31
Thanks chickenhead! I am actually glad you wrote that for me. It will help me play along. You are right about the technicalities. I apologize for that. My father bred grammatical discipline into me and I have a tendency to project it.
I am getting a real leg-up with Tom with your advice in that post. I'll take what he writes with the grain of salt that it deserves. It appears he has already made me his biatch. I'll have to recover.
And you are right about the satire. I have trouble dealing with people who genuinely hate America despite being American. It is my greatest pet peeve. Now that I know where you all stand, my comments will be less abrasive and caustic and more conducive to good-humored conversation.
6:37 pm on December 28th, 2010 32
CoeCoe,
This site is primarily populated with US military or former military members. Lots of us joke and BS and often do satire, especially with the some of anti-US crap that gets thrown around.
1:31 am on December 29th, 2010 33
For any of you still in Korea, or recently departed from Korea, do GI's still have the little ration card, where you are limited on how much coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. you can buy each month?
Back in the 70's we had those, so the black market was always busy, and hence why we were pretty much encouraged to throw away anything we could. But, in those days as well, Koreans could only buy Korean made products. About the only imports Korea had were raw materials and fuel. So, since all of the Korean made products were pretty shitty, the black market was about the only way a civilian could get a quality product.
Maybe part of Korea's garbage problem now is because they are becoming more like the US, where we have a disposable society. When something fails, just pitch and buy another el-cheapo replacement since it is usually cheaper than fixing it? Or is the garbage problem more limited to things like what you get from grocery stores, metal cans, plastic bottles, etc.?
2:47 am on December 29th, 2010 34
Bill,
In the last 15 years, there has been an amazing transformation in Korean trash.
First, be aware that I LOVE to dig through junkyards for many reasons.
You can know a society by studying their trash. I didn't come up with that, by the way… that is archeology and sociology talking.
You can also find cool stuff.
Gambling and shopping satisfy certain needs in many people. Going to a junkyard satisfies these needs for me.
It's like gambling… except if I "lose" and they have nothing interesting, I'm not out anything… and if they have something cool, I feel like I hit the jackpot.
And it's like shopping… except if I buy, it is pocket change for something truly expensive instead of years of credit card obligation for noisy-flashy crap that will end up in the junkyard when I quickly tire of it.
Fifteen years ago, people didn't have much to throw out in Korea… small green refrigerators and ugly 80s sofa sets in burnt orange Hangookahyde.
But, whenever I was near expensive apartments, I always took a look at what was thrown out… just to see what was up.
About 1998, you started to see all the 386 computers as people upgraded. I carried a screwdriver and would remove the hard disks and memory chips which still had some value. All my friends had hard disks and full memory… worth over $100 at the time… and, what cost me nothing but a few minutes, was worth a lot to them… and was paid back in dinners and drinks. Good deal.
Over the next decade, what was thrown out became newer and newer.. meaning 20 year-old beat-up radios used to be tossed… then 10 year-old used stereo systems… then 3 year-old new-looking component systems in last year's unfashionable color.
Fast forward to today.
I no longer hit the apartments. I go to directly to the recycle yards.
Let's see what I got in the last couple of months.
Two perfectly good running machines. One for me, one for my friend's birthday. No idea why they were thrown out. (30,000 and 50,000)
A new-looking weight bench and a bunch of weights. I gave the ones that weren't perfect away. (50,000)
A snowboard, 3 sets of skis… I gave them to friends (10,000)
Nortel Networks Baystack 460-24T-PWR switch which is a nice upgrade for the 14 computers I run (most of which also came from the recycle yard). (5,000 for that and a bunch of other stuff from a corporate network… could have taken the $500 rack for 30,000 but I have 4 floor-to-ceiling racks already)
A nice acoustic guitar that only needed a drop of wood glue and a week of clamping. (free)
A bunch of rackmount TV studio equipment… double monitors, every-channel RF modulators, signal processing, etc… upgraded the video security system (10,000)
An OLD Singer sewing machine… probably worth something… I have 4 of the Dress clones that I have restored (20,000)
A cool 1970s dial telephone… but in puke-ugly green instead of the more common zit-ugly beige (1,000)
A perfectly good upright band saw… heavy (50,000)
A perfectly good hammer drill and 3 big-boy cordless drills (of which 2 worked perfectly) (50,000)
An $800 Hilti laser level, tripod and a God-knows-how-much Japanese theodolite (200,000 – junkman knew that was worth more than scrap price).
And all of this is just from ONE recycle yard not far from my building in the last few months. It would break your heart to see what is smashed up for scrap metal. I get 10,000 won bicycles for all of the foreign English teachers that I know… and, at most, it's another 10,000 or so to have Bicycle Man restore them to new condition.
Consumer electronics, some of it current production, is thrown in piles as people upgrade. I have great stereo systems in all three of my workshops… although they are mostly for show as I went all MP3 in 1999.
Best I can tell, they recycle the aluminum here in Korea and maybe other stuff, too… but the plastic, everything from CDs to the shells of boom boxes, gets bagged up and shipped to China… as there are yards full of it near the ports of Incheon.
Sometimes I go to the Chonan recycle yards where lots of factories dump their stuff. Stepper motors, servo systems, industrial controls, power supplies, high voltage systems, actuators, a stainless steel industrial touchscreen monitor (that uses RS232 and I can't get the drivers to work but it's an indestructible monitor)… the list goes on and on… and most of it works… as the employees dump unneeded stuff for the price of the plastic and metal and thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars worth of stuff pays for a night of dinner, drinking and singing.
One of my special-purpose CNC machines was constructed almost entirely from the junkyard. This would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to buy… the axis controller alone are $2000 each in the States and it uses 4… plus motors. I paid 400 won per kilogram.
And to think… Ten years ago, I used to get a hard-on at DRMO… now, Korea throws out better stuff.
Everybody has their kryptonite and catnip.
Gun control, invasive illegal immigration, destruction of the good parts of American culture, welfare parasites… that can get me going for hours… kryptonite to my good mood.
Cool stuff at the recycle yard? Pure catnip, baby! That can get me going for hours, too… but in a good way!
Oh, yeah… and if you go to the car junkyard, you can pick up HID ballasts, bulbs and projectors for almost nothing (if you are cool). Upgrade your car, motorcycle, make a kick-arse flashlight (couple it with a 5AH battery (cheap but heavy lead acid or expensive yet small lithium ion) and you have an hour of burn time with car headlight brightness.)
I was building industrial-quality underwater HID lights 5 years ago (when the going rate for one was $4000) using bulbs and ballasts from crashed Korean luxury cars.
Anyway… that got me excited. Sorry for babbling.
Did I answer your trash question somewhere in there?
4:01 am on December 29th, 2010 35
Chickenhead -
Thanks, it more or less answered my question. Korea has progressed far past the state it was in when I was there, and is now more like America where we simply anything and everything away. Doesn't seem like there are that many starving and struggling families that need to dig through the trash to find something they can eat or sell, or even for the rural farming families to be tempted to sell a daughter to a mama-san anymore.
4:22 am on December 29th, 2010 36
ChickenHead, that was a cool story. When I'm back in Korea for the summer or something, I wouldn't mind going "dumpster diving" ("recycle retrieving"?) with you.
I might add another theory to why some of the stuff ends up there. When I bought my apartment, the previous owner's tenants of five years were still there and hoped to be indefinitely, but they finally agreed to move out a few months later. Their decision was kind of abrupt and they "tossed" stuff that wouldn't fit into their new place. I myself was buying the place because I suddenly had to move out of the chŏnse place I'd used as my home and as an office for a small company of a few employees, so when I had to move out of that larger "house" to a small apartment, I couldn't take everything with me and there was too little time to properly sell it.
I'm guessing at least some stuff ends up where you find it for reasons like that, and not necessarily because people are upgrading.
4:39 am on December 29th, 2010 37
Bill,
If you find the poorest of the poor in modern Korea, they will be living better then entire populations in America.
Much of that has less to do with income and more to do with the absolutely filthy, repulsive and disgusting way many low-income Americans CHOOSE to live.
America is really the only place I get culture shock. What I see there when I open my mind and look for it doesn't match with the ideal America I keep in my heart.
One trip to Walmart pretty much kicks that to the curb.
5:07 am on December 29th, 2010 38
Kushibo,
I know what you mean. I have set some cool stuff on the street in front of my building with a FREE sign just because it was too good to throw away and hard to sell on the used market.
When I bought my building, there was a lot of furniture… good stuff… but not my style. It lasted about 15 minutes on the street.
Another interesting story. I have carried TWO refrigerators on a motorcycle.
The second one was in Songtan. A former servicemember moved back to Korea and needed a refrigerator. I told him not to buy one… just wait. I drove to all the apartments and found a full-size basic refrigerator… still cold inside… within a week.
I borrowed a dolly, we taped the refrigerator to the dolly and he sat backwards on the back of the motorcycle and we drove with it across town… including past the main gate where I yelled, "Two Guys Moving!" as everybody stared.
The first time was when I needed another refrigerator for cold beer. I was on a Hyosung Gamma 125cc. I always carried some cargo straps for computers (and, once, for FIVE two-by-fours like a giant jousting pole).
Anyway, I saw a refrigerator in front of some apartments. It was still ice-cold in the freezer. I put the bike up on the big stand and leaned the refrigerator into it, hoping to lift up the bottom and balance it across the back seat and cargo rack. No luck. The bike kept wanting to fall over. I tried several times in several ways but couldn't do it.
Of course, I had an audience of old guards. I motioned them to help me. Oh, no, number one danger… of course. I told them I was just going to the apartment across the street… when, in fact, I was going across town. They helped me get it on and I strapped it down and, sitting almost on the gas tank, moved off the stand.
Strangely, the refrigerator was unnoticeable. The bike was balanced and there was no difference except in cornering… which felt like the front wheel wasn't making good contact with the ground. I took it easy all the way home, pulled up in front, tipped the bike and refrigerator over, unstrapped the bike and lifted it… easy.
That sounds impressive… but some of the stuff you see in SE Asia blows that away.
I have also had 7 people on a Cruise II… standing on the front wheel bolts and holding the handlebars, sitting on the headlight/speedo, on the gas tank, 3 on the seat, one on the back wheel bolts/exhaust pipe. We took it slow… but faster than walking.