It is a sickening enough site to be walking down any city street and see trash being whisked airily around by the breeze, but to behold the same sight on a mountain is outrageous. Littering in Korea is an unfortunate and serious problem, yet it is fortunately becoming an issue. More and more people are becoming concerned of the consequences of litter. However, there are still kids leaving markets with ice cream, tossing the wrappers upon the ground; men driving nonchalantly down the street flicking cigarettes from their car windows; merchants tossing oily boxes full of garbage under trees near their establishments. It is one thing to litter in a city where, if hope should have it, some city worker will come along and clean it all up, but in the mountains very few people cleans up after an ignorant litterer.
The KMPL has found, from the League’s cleanups in the mountains, that plastic bottles, soju (rice wine) bottles, wooden chopsticks, cigarette butts, and buried plastic bags of trash are the primary trash items that pollute Korea’s mountains.
The KMPL stands firmly by the adage “pack it in, pack it out.” Whatsoever comes in with you to the mountain, must also be taken down from the mountain. The mindset that allows a person to litter is a mystery, and it is mysterious more so how a person can enjoy the remarkable splendour of the highlands only to leave their waste behind.