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Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon Orders Emergency Management System for Standard Garbage Bags: “No Acts That Cause Inconvenience to Citizens During Crisis Situations”

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that, in response to concerns over instability in the supply and potential price increases of standard garbage bags triggered by rising oil prices due to instability in the Middle East, an emergency inspection of inventory across all 16 districts and counties confirmed that supply remains stable, thereby addressing public concerns.

A recent comprehensive survey of standard garbage bag quantities across the 16 districts and counties confirmed that sufficient stockpiles ranging from a minimum of six months to a maximum of over 16 months have been secured, indicating no overall issues with supply.

In addition, the city will operate an emergency management system in cooperation with districts and counties until the Middle East situation stabilizes, in order to prevent temporary spikes in demand and hoarding driven by public anxiety.

An emergency response task force will be established and operated to continuously monitor the supply situation of standard garbage bags and ensure stable supply through ongoing management.

In particular, the city will conduct daily checks of stock levels in each district and county to prevent supply delays, strengthen monitoring of hoarding and abnormal sales practices, and, if necessary, consider flexible measures such as limiting the quantity that can be purchased per person. It also plans to actively inform and promote relevant information to citizens regarding the stability of supply.

Above all, since the price of standard garbage bags is determined by ordinances of each district and county and cannot be immediately increased based on market conditions, the city urged citizens to refrain from excessive purchases influenced by unfounded rumors of price hikes.

Furthermore, according to the “2024 National Waste Generation and Treatment Status” by the Ministry of Environment, Busan Metropolitan City’s municipal solid waste material recycling rate stands at 52.5 percent, significantly exceeding the national average of 35.7 percent, demonstrating outstanding resource circulation performance.

This achievement is attributed to citizens’ active participation in waste separation, as well as the city’s continuous implementation of recycling-centered resource circulation policies, including the expansion of separation infrastructure and improvements in the collection and processing system for recyclables.

Moreover, the city is not resting on its current achievements and is accelerating efforts to establish a Busan-style plastic reduction roadmap in preparation for the 2030 ban on landfilling municipal waste and to fundamentally reduce plastic use.

On March 24, the city held an advisory meeting involving experts from the public sector, academia, industry, and civil society. At this early stage of policy formulation, discussions covered the current status and challenges of plastic use in Busan, as well as vision, goals, and key initiatives. Based on these discussions, the city plans to finalize a comprehensive roadmap within the year.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “Any actions that exploit external crisis situations to cause inconvenience to citizens will be strictly managed,” adding, “We will minimize inconvenience to citizens through thorough resource circulation administration and ask for your continued interest and cooperation in proper waste separation.”