Seongnam-si Provides 'Design Rights for Volume-based Waste Bags' to Gwangjin District, Seoul Free of Charge... Fourth Expansion Nationwide

Seongnam-si announced on the 4th that it has decided to offer the Design Rights for Volume-based Waste Bags to Gwangjin District, Seoul at no cost, following a formal request from the district.
This marks the fourth time the city has provided the Design Rights for Volume-based Waste Bags to another municipality, after Haenam County, Gwacheon-si in Gyeonggi-do, and Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang Province.
The designs being offered are those patented and owned by Seongnam-si, used for three types of volume-based waste bags: incineration, food waste, and reusable bags.
These designs include quantified CO2 emissions by bag size, pictograms illustrating prohibited items, ergonomic handle shapes, and bilingual labeling in English and Chinese.
After reviewing the licensing request from Gwangjin District, Seongnam-si decided to grant the rights free of charge.
As a result, Gwangjin District will be able to produce and distribute waste bags featuring these designs starting January 1 next year.
Seongnam-si has been using the new bag designs since May 2022, marking the first change in 27 years since the volume-based waste system was introduced in 1995.
To raise public awareness about greenhouse gas reduction, Seongnam-si was the first in the country to display CO2 emissions by bag size.
For example, a 20-liter waste bag represents 5.26 kg of CO2 emissions, and reducing 20 liters of waste is equivalent to planting five pine trees—a message conveyed through pictograms in the design.
To make waste disposal more convenient for residents, prohibited items are visualized with pictograms, and the bags are designed with handles.
The design of Seongnam-si’s volume-based waste bags has received several awards. In November 2023, it won the top prize in the 'Government Innovation: First and Best Practices Contest' hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), and in July 2024, it received an excellence award at the 'Outstanding Administration and Policy Case Competition' organized by the Korea Association for Public Policy Evaluation.
A Seongnam-si official stated, “Requests from other municipalities to use Seongnam-si’s Design Rights for Volume-based Waste Bags are spreading nationwide,” adding, “We expect this to further promote proper waste separation and raise environmental awareness.”

jjang@fnnews.com Jang Chung-sik Reporter