Why Seoul is paying residents to throw away less food

SEOUL – Long treated as a household nuisance, food waste in South Korea has grown into a climate, environmental and economic issue of national scale.

The country generates significantly more food waste per person than the global average, and the cost of collecting and processing it now amounts to tens of trillions of won each year.

In response, Seoul is rolling out a new incentive-based policy to curb what residents throw away in the first place.

On Dec 17, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced a new “food waste reduction points system”, under which households that cut their food waste output will receive cash-equivalent rewards.

The programme targets households that use food bins with radio-frequency identification, or RFID, which automatically weigh discarded food.

Residents who reduce their food waste by 10 per cent to 30 per cent or more compared with the same period a year earlier will qualify for up to 5,000 points per evaluation period, worth about 5,000 won (S$4.40).

Points are credited through Seoul’s Eco Mileage system and can be used like cash, including for tax payments, utility bills such as gas and management fees.

They can also be converted into local gift certificates such as Onnuri vouchers.

To ensure fairness, the city said it has built a new data-based evaluation system, allowing residents to check their reduction rates and earned points using verified disposal data from RFID machines.

Applications for the first half of 2026 will be accepted from Jan 5 to 23 via the Eco Mileage website.

Participation is limited to 1,000 households each half-year, with confirmed participants receiving a one-time bonus of 1,000 points.

“Reducing food waste is one of the most effective everyday actions citizens can take to cut carbon emissions and lower waste treatment costs,” said Mr Kwon Min, head of Seoul’s climate and environment department.

Growing environmental burden

The policy comes as South Korea grapples with the scale of its food waste problem.

According to the country’s Ministry of Environment, South Koreans discard about 95kg of food waste per person each year — significantly higher than the

global average of 79kg

.

In total, the cost of processing food waste alone reached approximately 823.5 billion won in 2024.

When broader social and economic losses are factored in – including collection, transport, incineration, composting and environmental damage – the total cost is estimated at nearly 20 trillion won annually.

Food waste is also known to be a

major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions

.

As discarded food decomposes, it releases methane, a gas far more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Experts estimate that emissions from food waste account for roughly 8 per cent to 10 per cent of South Korea’s total greenhouse gas output.

Environmental damage extends beyond the air.

Nearly 80 per cent of South Korea’s food waste consists of moisture, which can contaminate soil and groundwater if not properly managed.

While most food waste is separated and recycled into animal feed or compost, its high salt content limits how effectively it can be re-used.

The environmental footprint is compounded by the food system itself. Producing food that ultimately goes uneaten requires land, water and energy, while expanding agricultural land is a leading cause of habitat destruction and biodiversity loss worldwide.

From bans to incentives

South Korea has long taken a more aggressive approach to food waste than many other countries.

In 2005, the government banned the direct landfilling of food waste. In 2011, it prohibited dumping food waste leachate into the ocean.

Two years later, the country introduced a volume-based food waste fee system, requiring households to pay based on how much they discard – a policy that has since evolved into the RFID-based weighing system now used in many apartment complexes.

More recently, in 2023, South Korea replaced “sell-by” dates with “use-by” labels to reduce unnecessary disposal of edible food, aligning with global efforts to curb waste caused by confusing expiration labelling.

Seoul officials say the new points-based programme is designed to complement these regulatory measures by encouraging voluntary behavioural change, rather than relying solely on penalties. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK