

By Lee Suh-yoon





From next month, disposable plastic bags for dripping umbrellas will no longer be available at the entrances of government buildings and subway stations in Seoul.







Instead, manual wipe-off dryers will be installed.







"Disposable plastic bags are at the center of the current waste management crisis," the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Monday. "The move is aimed at lowering single-use plastic consumption and setting a good example to other institutions."







The country's waste collection system has been overwhelmed this month after China banned plastic waste imports for environmental reasons.







Government-affiliated buildings in Seoul alone used more than 300,000 disposable umbrella bags last year, according to the government statistics.







The switch is good news for building managers, who do not know what to do with the piles of used plastic umbrella covers that have mounted since the Chinese ban.







"Because umbrella covers are usually clean enough to be recycled, we stack them in rooms for collection by recycling companies," said Hwang Yeon-soon, cleaning manager at a 20-story commercial building near Seoul Station.



"But now, with this waste management crisis, they keep piling up and I don't know what to do with them."







Koreans use 19 billion plastic bags of all kinds every year ― 420 per person ― more than twice the European average, according to the Korea Zero Waste Movement Network.

