[10월호, 2020년] Is this the Way Forward? Rethinking the Delivery Nation - 6기 김예빈

 

Is this the Way Forward? Rethinking the Delivery Nation 

In Korea, people can order all sorts of food via delivery apps ranging from ‘Ddokbokki’ to ‘Gamja-tang’. Within 50 minutes - often less- a well-prepared meal arrives in front of your door and when you’re finished, there’s no need to do the dishes - just throw them out.

The convenience brought about by this delivery system is not only captivating, but it corresponds to the desires of the contemporary Korean society: the growth of one-person households and the busy working population often burdened by exhaustive duties at work. Since 2017, single-person households have become the most common type of living arrangement in Korea [1]. At the end of the day, more and more people choose to order their meals on apps than to spend time preparing for their food. The breakout of COIVD-19 has made the delivery market even more lucrative as going outside for lunch or dinner has been discouraged. Consequently, major delivery service platforms have seen their profit skyrocket with increasing users.[2] This year, Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) announced that food delivery transactions from January to July saw an increase of 73.6% from the same months of last year.[3]

[Figure 1] Food Delivery in Korea

[Figure 2] Delivery motorbike parked in front of a building [4]

 What should also ring our bell, however, is that the ascendency in delivery goes hand in hand with the ascendency in waste production.[5] Even worse, the food delivery business involves a tremendous amount of single-use plastics that can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Most plastics do not biodegrade but only break down into small fragments known as microplastics, posing a serious threat to wildlife on land and in the ocean.[6]

 

[Figure 3] Gangbuk Recycling Screening Site [7]

 One may insist that plastics are recyclable, but statistics show that recycling is more of an ideal than the reality. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) 2018 Report on single-use plastics reveal that only 9% of all the plastic waste ever produced has been recycled. 79% of them sit in landfill sites or our environment and some 12% have been incinerated. Korea’s recycling rate is certainly higher than this global average, yet that does not make the use of disposable plastics sustainable.[8] In fact, plastics used for food delivery are difficult to be recycled because most of them are badly stained by food. We know from practice that no matter how hard we try to wash the plastic containers, they do not easily turn white again.

 

“only 9% of all the plastic waste ever produced has been recycled” (UNEP 2018)

 

Indeed, the disposal of trash has become incredibly toilsome with food delivery becoming a daily routine for many Koreans. The most alarming question for South Korea is, how should we manage all this trash? The first hint of a waste disposal crisis was unveiled in 2018 when China banned the importation of most plastic waste. Before, Korea had exported large volumes of its plastic waste to China. Now, exportation is not an option. This led to a decrease in plastic prices, prompting many recycling firms to stop collecting garbage. If plastic waste cannot be recycled, the only options left are incineration and reclamation. Naturally, the cost of incineration and reclamation skyrocketed from 2016 to 2019. [9] Meanwhile, the recent announcement on the termination of the Seoul Capital Area Landfill Site in 2025 shed light on the problem of the lack of alternative landfill sites within the country.[10] In truth, large volumes of used plastics are being dumped in uncontrolled sites or are being littered in the environment.[11]

[Figure 4] Uiseong Trash Mountain 2019 [12]

 Some related delivery companies are beginning to make efforts such as developing eco-friendly containers that decompose more easily.[13] Nevertheless, the speed at which the delivery transaction is increasing, and the use of disposable plastics multiplying aggravates the waste problem. Just consciously observing the speed of plastic waste piling up in our houses and realizing that these will take at least hundreds of years to decompose might give us a hint of the forthcoming years.

 In order to reverse our step and move towards a sustainable society, a comprehensive effort from all stakeholders - ranging from the government to businesses to individuals - will be needed. In terms of food delivery, effective bans, or limits on the use of disposable plastics need to take place. More fundamentally, though, a paradigm shift from recycling to reuse is required. Instead of taking the current status quo for granted, we can look back and learn from the past when multi-use (not single-use) containers were used for food delivery and take-outs. Innovative business models such as services that deliver the used container back to restaurants for reuse can be much more promising than the current delivery system. Without giving thought to where all our single-use plastics are heading towards, tomorrow may become more unsustainable than today.

  

 

References

[1] http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=4174796

[2] https://www.donga.com/news/Economy/article/all/20200909/102849671/1

[3]https://www.hankyung.com/life/article/2020092098181

[4] https://byline.network/2020/09/09-30/

[5] https://www.asiae.co.kr/article/2020092210005365672

[6] https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25496/singleUsePlastic_sustainability.pdf

[7] http://www.greenkorea.org/activity/living-environment/zerowaste/73942/

[8] https://weekly.donga.com/3/all/11/2212716/1

[9] http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=4174796

[10] https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2020/nwdesk/article/5885202_32524.html

[11] http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=4179345

[12] https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0103_201901041135067741

[13] https://www.hankyung.com/economy/article/202009043681i