Seoul designates garbage discharge dates during Lunar New Year holiday

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Friday that it will implement the city’s comprehensive cleanup measures to help residents spend Lunar New Year‘s Day in a pleasant environment.

To prevent inconvenience during the holiday period, the government plans to designate both discharging and collection dates of domestic waste, dividing the dates for different regions into three sections: before, during and after the Lunar New Year’s Day.

Starting next week, from Monday to Wednesday, before the actual holiday period, household waste can be discharged as usual, to be collected and sent to waste disposal facilities, such as landfills located in metropolitan areas and other resource facilities.

However, during the holiday period that follows from Thursday,, caution is needed since each region within Seoul has been designated a different garbage discharge date, due to public cleaners’ days off and the closure of the Seoul metropolitan area landfills and related facilities.

Household waste can be thrown away in the districts of Seongdong and Gangnam on Feb. 11, Jongno and Gangdong on Feb. 12, and Yeongdeungpo and Songpa on Feb. 13. On the last day of the holiday, Feb. 14, garbage can be disposed of throughout Seoul.

During the holiday, a total of 26 cleaning situation rooms will be set up and operated across Seoul, with 542 personnel in the cleaning patrols who will swiftly deal with civil inconveniences and complaints in the public environment.

In addition, some 11,257 public cleaners will conduct special work duties during the holiday to handle street cleaning and cleaning complaints in major areas, while collecting discharged household waste.

After the Lunar New Year holiday, all cleaning personnel and equipment will be back to regular shifts in local regions to collect and dispose of garbage for which pickups were delayed during the holiday season.

Lim Mi-kyung, director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government‘s Living Environment Department, commented in a press release, “The Seoul Metropolitan Government will make every effort to carry out the city’s cleaning measures such as garbage pickups during the Lunar New Year holiday.”

Lim also urged residents to reduce food waste as much as possible and to comply with the garbage discharge dates.

Questions or inquiries related to public cleaning issues during the holiday season can be reached at the Dasan Call Center at 120.

By Kim Hae-yeon (hykim@heraldcorp.com)