Falling campaign banner recycling rates a sign of the times, as complexities hinder gov't efforts

More than 100,000 campaign banners are expected to be discarded following Korea's June 3 local elections, but regional governments are struggling to recycle the waste because of the labor-intensive preprocessing required and the difficulty of predicting disposal volumes, which has resulted to a decline in campaign banner recycling rates during election periods.

A total of 128,000 campaign banners were used during the local elections four years ago, according to the National Election Commission. In the 2018 local elections, 138,100 banners were used. Given the numbers, more than 100,000 campaign banners are estimated to have been used in this year's local elections as well.

With the increased number of used campaign banners, the government has encouraged municipalities to recycle the banners because making and disposing of banners both generate carbon emissions, according to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.

Collected banners are typically washed and repurposed into shopping bags, tote bags, sacks and sandbags, while the remainder are incinerated.

The recycling rate for discarded banners rose to 33.3 percent in 2024 from 29.6 percent in 2023 and reached 48.4 percent last year, according to the Environment Ministry.

The ministry attributed the increase largely to efforts made through holding a competition on circulating waste banner resources, which encourages local governments to establish collection and support systems for banner recycling. The contest was jointly organized with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety since 2024.

Interest among local governments has increased, as the number of local ordinances related to banner recycling rose from five in May 2024 to 126 within two years.

However, during the first quarter of 2024, when a large number of campaign banners were generated for the parliamentary elections, the recycling rate for the campaign banners stood at 29.2 percent, below the annual average of 33.3 percent.

Recycling rates for campaign banners only stood at 24.5 percent and 24.8 percent during the 2022 presidential election period and local election period, respectively.

Officials at local governments said that accurately forecasting volumes and preparing plans for the banners is difficult because they are posted intensively over a short period during heated election campaigns and municipalities only collect banners left behind after political parties and candidates fail to remove them.

“It is difficult to predict the volume of discarded banners, so we currently do not have a specific recycling plan,” said an official in southern Seoul’s Gangnam District. The district had operated a program four years ago that was well-received by residents which turned campaign banners into reusable shopping bags and handbags through the Cheongdam-dong community service center.

Another challenge is the amount of labor required to recycle campaign banners.

“Making products from campaign banners requires much more work than recycling ordinary banners because we have to cut out the faces or party names and only use the remaining parts when making recycled products,” an official from Busanjin District in Busan said.

“If politicians' faces, party names or other identifying information are left visible on recycled products, it could lead to complaints from those involved or from residents.”

The official added that banners must be cleaned before recycling and that municipalities often lack sufficient storage space for the large number of banners collected during election seasons.

Campaign banners are subject to more complicated recycling procedures than ordinary banners, meaning that it all comes down to making less of them in the first place, according to Choi Seung-woo, a researcher at the Fiscal Reform Institute.

“Economic constraints and a lack of recycling contractors in some regions are also obstacles for local governments,” Choi said. “There are clear limits to expanding recycling alone. Fundamentally, political parties and politicians need to reduce the production of banners, while structural measures, such as converting discarded banners into industrial raw materials, should be implemented alongside recycling efforts.”

BY KIM MIN-JU [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]