Emission characteristics and household food waste reduction strategies in South Korea

World Congress and Expo on Recycling

July 20-22, 2015 Barcelona, Spain

Dong-Gun Hwang and Tae-WanJeon

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Environ Anal Toxicol

Abstract :

In spite of the government�??s various efforts to reduce food waste, the food waste in South Korea has increased about 3% every year, mainly due to the growing population, number of households, and income. Food waste occurs in the processes of production, transportation, distribution, storage and cooking of food ingredients. However, there has been little reliable data about how households �??a major food waste source�?� store and treat their food and how much food waste they produce. In this regard, we thought it was important to understand the exact amount and characteristics of food waste from households in order to reduce the country�??s food waste, which is why we monitored kinds, storage periods, treatment, and waste of food consumed in 100 households in the Seoul metropolitan area. A monitoring method for the selected monitor box and conduct education in spring (May), summer (July) and fall (September) while food waste monitoring for 3 so far has conducted. Households normally store their food ingredients in refrigerators on average 34 kinds and 55 kg of food are stored and some of them stayed there for up to 3 years. Moreover, not a small portion of the food is thrown away nearly untouched, mostly because people tend to purchase too much food at one time or they don�??t know or miss their expiration dates. The amounts of food waste by type were in the order of vegetable>side dish>frozen food>fruit>seasoning. Also, we suggest effective and realistic measures to reduce food waste and promote a more desirable food consumption culture in Korea.