Currently, in Bukhansan National Park, there’s not a single trash bin to be found in park grounds. A national park whose very design is to provide the public with a haven of healthy natural beauty is completely devoid of the basic tool outside of education for reducing litter. We ask for your support in tackling this issue, to help bring it to a wider public, and convince the authorities that a national park, of all places, must have trash bins. Join us to bring back the bins!
Background
The trash bins of Bukhansan National Park were removed by decision of the National Parks Service (NPS) on May 1, 2007. There were four underlining reasons for the removal:
- There wasn’t enough funding to continue maintenance of trash bins
- Funding for the bins would have to come through taxes, and was thus deemed unfair
- It was believed that park visitors would remove their own trash
- Food trash caused a smell near trash bin sites.
The park office claims that the amount of trash removed from the park (through means unexplained) has continually decreased since 2006. This contrasts the KMPL’s data that indicates a constant average of trash being removed since 2007. The park office admitted that they didn’t consider the actions of the KMPL in their calculations.
Money Problems?
The claims of insufficient funds to support bin maintenance is highly due to park fees having been abolished in 2006, a year before the bins were removed. The NPS suggested that fees be removed and the Ministry of Environment complied, making the decision final. According to the park office, fees were removed for three reasons:
- Public complaints (fees were 1,600 won, roughly $1.30 per person)
- To attract more visitors (Bukhansan is one of the most visited national parks in the world)
- Park rangers had apparently become more concerned about finances than the park itself.
Since the removal of fees, visitors to Bukhansan National Park have dramatically increased. In 2006, the year the fees were removed, over 4,800,000 people visited the park. The next year, over 10,200,000 visitors entered the park. These numbers are unsustainable, and the ecology of Bukhansan is in danger of continually being exploited and misused via over-visitation, particularly by irresponsible mountaineers. If no money existed in the past to maintain trash bins, how are any of the functions of the park office maintained now that fees do not exist?
The Campaign
For the time being, the KMPL is putting focus on the absence of trash bins and the necessity of having them reinstated in Bukhansan National Park. If money is a problem, we raise the issue of no fees. At least one district of Seoul, Jongro-gu, agrees with our concern and has launched its own complaint against the park office and the NPS. Please sign the petition and help put pressure on the authorities to bring back the bins and provide the full service and care for the national park with which they are charged.
Show your support!
If you are concerned, like we are, about the decision that has removed all trash bins from the grounds of Bukhansan National Park and feel that reinstating the bins is in the best interests of the park and the people who use it, please sign the petition.
By working together, we can put pressure on the park and environmental authorities that have made this questionable decision.