Global Courant
SEOUL – Around the world, most of the 2.5 billion tons of food thrown away each year ends up in landfills. As the food rots, it pollutes water and soil and releases massive amounts of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
But not in South Korea, which banned food scraps from its landfills nearly 20 years ago. Here, the vast majority is converted into animal feed, fertilizer and fuel for heating homes.
Food waste is one of the biggest causes of climate change, not only because of the methane, but also because the energy and resources that went into production and transportation have been wasted.
South Korea’s system, which keeps about 90 percent of discarded food out of landfills and incinerators, has been studied by governments around the world. Officials from China, Denmark and elsewhere have visited South Korea’s facilities. New York City, which will require all residents to separate their food waste from other waste next fall, has adhered to the Korean system for years, a spokesman for the city’s sanitation department said.
While a number of cities have similar programs, few if any other countries are doing what South Korea is doing on a national scale. That’s because of the cost, said Dr. Paul West, a senior scientist with Project Drawdown, a research group studying ways to reduce carbon emissions. Although individuals and businesses pay a small fee to dispose of food waste, the program costs South Korea about $600 million a year, according to the Ministry of the Environment.
Nevertheless, Dr. West and other experts that it should be followed. “South Korea’s example makes it possible to reduce emissions on a larger scale,” he said.
South Korea’s culinary tradition often results in uneaten food. Small side dishes — sometimes a few, sometimes more than a dozen — accompany most meals. For years, almost all of those remains went into the ground.
But the country’s mountainous terrain limits how many landfills can be built and how far they can be from residential areas. In 1995, the government introduced mandatory paper and plastic recycling, but food scraps continued to be buried with other waste.
Political support for change was driven by people living near landfills complaining about the stench, said Dr. Kee-Young Yoo, a researcher at the government-run Seoul Institute who has advised cities on how to deal with food waste. Since stews are a staple of Korean cuisine, discarded food here often has a high water content, which means it has more volume and worse odors.
“When all that was lost, a terrible stench was released,” said Dr. Yoo.
Since 2005, it has been illegal to send food waste to landfills. Local governments have built hundreds of facilities to handle it. Consumers, restaurant owners, truck drivers and others are part of the network that ensures it is collected and turned into something useful.
At Jongno Stew Village, a popular lunch spot in the Dobong district of northern Seoul, pollock stew and kimchi jjigae are the bestsellers. But regardless of the order, Mr. Lee Hae-yeon, the owner, serves small side dishes of kimchi, tofu, cooked bean sprouts, and marinated perilla leaves.
