Jeonnam Gwangju Buk-gu to Stop Producing 75-Liter Volume-Based Waste Bags, Introduce 3-Liter Bags

Protecting sanitation workers and addressing the rise in single-person households

Buk-gu of Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City is revising the sizes of its volume-based waste bags to protect sanitation workers and adapt to changing household structures.

A view of Buk-gu, Gwangju, Jeonnam.

Buk-gu announced on October 18 that it would stop producing 75-liter volume-based waste bags, previously the largest size, starting this month and would introduce and sell 3-liter bags on a trial basis.

This is the first adjustment to the district’s volume-based waste bag sizes in seven years, since it discontinued 100-liter bags in March 2019. The change is intended to prevent musculoskeletal disorders among sanitation workers who collect waste that can be excessively heavy, while also meeting demand for smaller waste bags from the rapidly growing number of single-person households.

From late September, Buk-gu conducted a 15-day online and offline survey of residents and local businesses on changes to the volume-based waste bag sizes. Of the 982 respondents, 78.8% supported discontinuing the 75-liter bags, while 60.2% said their daily lives would not be inconvenienced even if production stopped.

Buk-gu has decided to stop producing 75-liter volume-based waste bags, but plans to continue distributing and selling those already produced until stocks run out. At the same time, it will produce 100,000 small 3-liter bags on a trial basis, targeting single-person households. The district plans to analyze actual sales of the 3-liter bags and resident satisfaction before deciding whether to adopt them as a standard size.

Buk-gu Office chief Shin Sujeong said, "This revision to the sizes of volume-based waste bags is intended to protect sanitation workers who work hard in the field and to respond flexibly to increasingly diverse household structures. We will continue to listen closely to residents and those working in the field as we establish a convenient and efficient waste collection system."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.