If you live in Korea, you have to follow strict recycling policies. Korea is very specific with the kinds of trash it recycles, for instance, biodegradable waste, PET bottles, other plastics, batteries, bottles, and sometimes more in details. Recycling regulations differ according to the processing of a local government so you have to check out labeling thoroughly before you sort out your garbage.

Our school, Yongsan International School of Seoul, is located at Itaewon, a special tourism district where people can experience diverse culture, shopping and entertainment. Our school's environment preserving club members are curious whether these rules are kept in our community.

 Early Saturday morning at 07:30a.m., four members from club got together in front of Hamilton Hotel, the center of Itaewon.

The main street was already cleaned by city janitorial service. Every garbage was recycled and packed in special coded colored bags. We went into the alleys, and there were left over garbages all over the place. The amount of trash in the alleys was huge compared to the cleaned up main streets.

We wrote an e-mail to the district municipal office whether the city contracted cleaning service was limited to main streets or the amount of trash left was beyond the service scope over the weekend. And try to search other districts whether the recycling service system is similar to our school district and sharing the same problem.