Recyclable goods are divided into paper, glass, cans, and plastic. Apartment residents put these into the assigned collection boxes (according to the item). Individual residents gather recyclable items at designated places twice every week. Items should be emptied and cleaned before recycling. Large volume waste such as refrigerators and furniture, which are hard to dispose of, should be reported to the Sanitation Division of the District offices (or Dong offices) 3 days before disposal. A written notice for the fee to be paid at the bank will be given. The fee is determined according to the size of the article.
Trash must be separated into food waste, recyclables, etc. Waste disposal is important to the environment of Korea. According to the regulations established in 1995, all households and businesses are required to buy standardized bags to dump waste. These bags must be tied before being thrown away. The bags can be bought at many stores or supermarkets near place of residence and are marked with the name of the district for which they are used and collected. Used fluorescent lamps, broken glass, leftovers from housing repairs and gardening should be broken into as many small pieces as possible before putting them into sturdy bags. The sturdy bags are then put into the standardized bags. There are 3 types of standard bags: white bags (domestic use), blue bags (public utility use), and orange bags (business use).
