Hwaseong Special City Returns 5,600 Shopping Baskets Collected by Citizens Back to Citizens' Hands
Hwaseong Special City (Mayor Jung Myeong-geun) announced that it has concluded the 'Please Gather Shopping Baskets!' resource circulation practice campaign, which was promoted to commemorate 'World Plastic Bag Free Day' on July 3, with the participation of approximately 400 citizens.
Through this campaign, more than 5,600 unused shopping baskets from households were collected, and the collected baskets are being reused through local shops and institutions to provide them to citizens in need.
Now in its fourth year, 'Please Gather Shopping Baskets!' is a citizen-participation-based resource circulation campaign that collects reusable shopping baskets such as paper shopping bags and eco-bags that are no longer used in households, delivers them to local shops and institutions, and enables citizens in need to use them again.
The campaign ran from July 1 to September 13, with participation from various local shops and institutions including Hansalim, Hwaseong City Local Food Direct Sales Store, Zero Waste Shop, and Nammyang Shrine of Our Lady of Nammyang.
During the campaign period, shopping baskets donated by citizens are being provided free of charge to citizens visiting participating shops and institutions. Even after the official campaign period ends, remaining shopping baskets at each participating location will continue to be reused until they are all distributed.
The city explained that this campaign has significance in creating a circular structure of 'sharing and reuse' in which unused shopping baskets from households are shared with neighbors and reused in the local community. Through this, the city expects that by extending the usage period of shopping baskets while reducing the use of single-use plastic bags, it will also help promote a culture of resource circulation practices in daily life.
Kim Bong-gyun, head of the Resource Circulation Division, said, "The significance of this campaign is great in that shopping baskets voluntarily provided by citizens are delivered to those in need within the local community and reused," and added, "We hope that the experience of sharing things and reusing them, departing from a consumption pattern of using once and discarding, will lead to citizens' daily practices of resource circulation."
천의현 대표이사 euihyun@suwonilbo.kr