Chuseok, Trash is Not a Gift

‘Wish not for more or less, may it always be like Chuseok.’

Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving Day, is the biggest holiday in Korea where you share and appreciate the year’s harvests with your family, friends and colleagues on the day of the biggest and brightest full moon of the year.

It may have different names and dates for countries around the world, there will be a holiday where you celebrate with your loved ones.

During this holiday, people in Korea, it is a custom to exchange gifts with family, friends and colleagues as a way to express gratitude to one another. However, the amount of packaging that comes with the gift is quite large and made of various materials that waste disposal is a huge burden on society.



The look of gift sets changed over time

The economic prosperity of the 1980s affected the consumer market, hence the beginning of the Chuseok gifts sets market, which was composed of various canned foods, toiletry products, and cooking oil sets.

Since the mid-1980s as the economy grew, the composition of products have diversified to reflect the sign of the times; from industrial products such as toothpaste, soap, coffee and seasonings, to processed foods such as canned food, and to fresh produces like meat and fruits and the packaging has also changed to fancier and more luxurious.

<1970-80s toothpaste gift set and seasoning set>

<Dongwon canned tuna gift set from 1984 and 1997>

Back in the days, if you look at those gift sets, you can see almost no empty spaces and are composed of practical products. In addition, they used paper packaging inside and out to show the essence of packaging for products.



Stacks of gift sets, piled up packaging wastes

We often face piled up packaging wastes before and after Chuseok.

On September 4, just before Chuseok, the Ministry of Environment announced that beginning September 5-16, it will enforce ‘Measures for management of domestic waste on Chuseok’ to reduce accumulation of recycled gift packaging materials with local governments and related organizations.

Therefore, local governments conducted intensive control on excessive packaging, such as the ratio of packaging space and limited number of packaging, as well as illegal disposal of waste. Despite all these efforts, the amount of waste poured out after Chuseok remains the same every year.

Since 2018, the total domestic waste has been steadily increasing about 5% every year. As a result of a survey conducted on 154 private screening sites across Korea on Chuseok by the Ministry of Environment in 2021, the amount of waste was increased from 17,000 tons before Chuseok,to 29,000 tons after Chuseok, which is 69% increase.

<Waste amount in Chuseok: the Ministry of Environment, 2021>

Regardless, 77 out of the 11,417 Chuseok products were caught for excessive packaging but only 39 were fined. This raises questions about the effectiveness of the system and some suggest that standards should be supplemented.

Environmental activist groups indicated that more specific and practical guidelines are needed for packaging space and individual packaging products (not applicable for bundled items) to prevent excessive amounts of waste from packaging.

On the other hand, some are concerned about the lack of regulations for online delivery products. According to the National Logistics Information Center, the volume of online delivery has soared 20.9% compared to last year since COVID-19. Although the Ministry of Environment announced in April that the regulations on excessive packaging will begin in 2024, there are raising voices for moving up the date because it is still two-years away and the amount of packaging waste is increasing unbearably.



Eco-friendly transformation of Chuseok gift sets

As a report from Emforce DataLAB’s research, about 43% of Chuseok gift sets were purchased through large supermarket chains like E-Mart and Costco. For the type of gifts purchased, dietary supplement foods were the most popular and steady sellers, and processed foods, agricultural products and seafood were searched in order. One thing that stands out is, 70% of consumers searched for brand names instead of products. Subsequently, companies marketed their products with eco-friendly packaging or reduced overpackaging, targeted to the consumer’s eco-friendly purchasing trend.

These transformation of gift sets manifests the changes in pattern over time. Yet, paper is used for the outer packaging, but you often come across plastic inner packaging for various reasons. First, for the purpose of protection, as well as the preservation and exhibition to catch the eyes of consumers.

<Korean traditional cookies and bath products gift sets>

Obviously, the biggest reason will be the limitless formability and unrivaled cost efficiency. Even though, recently, the government is encouraging the conversion to use eco-friendly packaging materials through various regulations and recommendations, replacement costs for production facilities and increase in cost are inevitably a great concern to producers and sellers.



Eco-friendly packaging? In need for responsible consumption and multi angulated regulation

As previously mentioned, looking at the transition of packaging materials, we can see an ongoing increase in the proportion of eco-friendly packaging with paper material taking the active part of it but plastic materials continue to appear persistently.

Consumers prefer eco-friendly and choose paper packaging, thinking they are eco-friendly, however, it can be a trap. Many paper packaging are coated with plastic, or PE, for water resistance, printability, and durability during distribution.

Paper may be used but plastic coatings make it hard to recycle since it is difficult to separate paper and coated film layers during the recycling process. Consequently, it is not eco-friendly in terms of resource circulation. Besides, putting these packagings into a paper recycling bin makes it difficult to recycle other papers and it worsens the situation.

The situation where non eco-friendly packaging disguises as eco-friendly packaging to increase the price of products while hinders recycling and exacerbates the problem of waste, doesn’t it sound familiar? This is the example of ‘Greenwashing,’ which requires the attention and awareness of producers who make the choice of material and consumers who make the choice of buying.

For the total transition to an absolute eco-friendly packaging material, national regulations and policy directions play an essential role.

Although prohibiting excessive packaging and regulating packaging materials is necessary, multi angulated regulations for differential application on charges based on the amount used or recyclability of packaging materials must be considered.



Full on eco-friendly, just like full moon Chuseok



Even if the gift set delivers full hearted gratitude, no one will be happy if it leads to destruction of the environment and ecosystem since the responsibility will fall upon us.

We, as a part of a society, must agree on reducing the overall use of packaging. Hence, the government also has to establish long-term policies for resource circulations that overlook multiple perspectives. The policy should not just burden the producers with regulations but consumers also need a continuous emphasis on education that will reduce plastic use.

Additionally, various support programs should be provided for companies like rePAPER who ceaselessly research sustainable packaging materials that can be recycled for the next generations.

For the next Chuseok, let’s wish for an eco-friendly Chuseok with less guilt but full heart with gifts full of sincerity, just like full moon, without greenwashing packaging.