Disposables to be banned at large-scale events hosted by Seoul city gov’t

Starting in September, disposable products will be banned at events and festivals hosted by the Seoul city government and attended by more than 1,000 people, as part of its measures to reduce the use of disposables, the municipality said Monday. In accordance with the so-called "Plastic-free Seoul" policy plan, large private funeral halls, including one at the Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul, plan to introduce multiuse containers from the second half of this year, it noted. The Seoul Medical Center's funeral hall was already declared free of disposables in July last year, while 38 retailers located at Jamsil Baseball Stadium began selling food and beverages in reusable containers in April. The Seoul Metropolitan Dongbu Hospital is to introduce the reusable containers by the end of this month, while the Samsung Medical Center's funeral hall plans to do so in the second half, the city government said, adding the annual waste generation from the facilities will be reduced by some 80 percent. The ci ty government said it has reduced the use of disposable plastics by about 378 tons over the past two years, resulting in a reduction of about 1,039 tons of greenhouse gases. Source: Yonhap News Agency