'Hornet ajeossi' helps Nowon-gu slash disposable cup use by 77%

Activist Lee Shin-woo chases a disposable cup user in the 'Nowon-gu Hornet Ajeossi' video. [Nowon-gu YouTube]

A resident walked into the Seoul Nowon-gu district office carrying a disposable coffee cup. Before he could get far, activist Lee Shin-woo, 64, sprinted across the lobby and stopped in front of him. "Our district office prohibits disposable cups from being brought inside — please join us," Lee said. The flustered resident turned around, took the cup back outside and said he would carry a tumbler from then on.

The scene, which played out recently at the Nowon-gu district office, illustrates the results the district's disposable-cup reduction campaign has been producing. Amid a broader push by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and its constituent districts to cut single-use plastics for environmental protection, Nowon-gu's effort has stood out for its measurable impact.

According to Nowon-gu, since the launch of its campaign banning disposable cups inside the district office building, the number of cups brought in each month fell by about 6,000 compared with the same months last year.

Since last year, the district's resource-circulation division has run a series of initiatives: a "Nowon Zero Day" offering a 500-won discount at the first-floor cafe for tumbler users, a program to promote the use of reusable-cup return machines, public-address announcements inside the building, and surveys of disposable cup use within individual departments.

Building on those efforts, the district enacted an ordinance to promote reduced single-use item consumption and launched a seven-month campaign running through September, targeting both staff and visitors during the peak foot-traffic hours of 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The campaign involves one activist holding a sign and informing people of the ban on disposable cups.

The results have been striking. Comparing first-half disposable cup use this year against the same period last year, the district recorded monthly reductions of 5,820 in January, 6,742 in February, 6,220 in March, 6,655 in April, 5,584 in May and 5,576 in June. Over the six months, 36,597 fewer disposable cups were used — a 77 percent drop compared with the same period last year, the district said.

As disposable cup use fell, reusable cup and tumbler use rose sharply. Monthly increases in reusable cup use inside the building compared with the previous year came to 6,252 in January, 4,234 in February, 5,643 in March, 5,233 in April, 4,205 in May and 5,171 in June. Reusable cups now account for 88 to 89 percent of all cup use inside the building, the district said.

"Employees' voluntary participation helped, but the activist's enthusiasm made a huge difference," a Nowon-gu official said.

Activist Lee Shin-woo promotes the disposable cup ban on the first floor of the Nowon-gu district office in Seoul. [Nowon-gu]

Lee said he originally worked on recycling and waste-sorting duties through the "Nowon Donghang Job" project before signing up for the disposable cup campaign in November last year. "It's a good cause, so once I was doing it, I gave it everything I had," he said.

Lee's energetic approach quickly became a talking point at the district office. According to Nowon-gu, he would dash across the lobby the moment he spotted someone approaching with a disposable cup and explain the campaign's purpose. Staff and visitors were initially put off by his forwardness, but gradually came around and began cutting their disposable cup use, motivated by a sense of doing something worthwhile.

"Thanks to the learning effect from the activist who appears out of nowhere the moment you walk in with a disposable cup, people are now trying to avoid using them even outside the building," a district official said.

Lee's activities drew enough attention that Nowon-gu produced a short video featuring him under the title "Nowon-gu Hornet Ajeossi" — a reference to Heo Myeong-gu, a figure who became well known on the MBN variety program "Naneun Jayeoninida" ("I Am a Nature Person") for sprinting after hornets that threatened his honeybees. In the district's video, Lee is shown chasing a person carrying a disposable cup while wielding a dragonfly net.

Nowon-gu has been pursuing a range of initiatives toward becoming a carbon-neutral city. It built the country's first zero-energy housing complex, the EZ Center, and plans to begin a green remodeling program for aging public buildings next year. The district has also enrolled all residents in bicycle insurance to reduce car use and is running a campaign to plant 1 million trees.

"I feel proud to have played even a small part in protecting the environment of the neighborhood where I live," Lee said. "If campaigns like this spread beyond Seoul to the rest of the country, I think single-use item consumption would drop dramatically."

ikson@heraldcorp.com