SEOUL — U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan officials are asking base residents to separate their food waste from other trash in an effort to make more money from the base’s recycling program.
Placing food scraps in a separate bag within regular trash could earn an extra $60,000 for the garrison if it can sell 25 percent more of its recyclable materials, which can’t be sold when contaminated by food, officials said.
“We are continuously improving our [program] annually, and as we solicit the assistance of our community, we anticipate those costs earnings to increase for the garrison,” said Calvin Cobbs, the garrison’s plant operation and sanitation chief.
Garrison officials said they are only asking that residents use a tied-off plastic bag of any kind that will keep food off the rest of their garbage.
Unlike off-post residents, those living within the garrison do not have to separately throw away plastics, metals and other recyclables, nor do they have to buy local government-approved bags for different types of waste.
Instead, a contractor picks up all the trash and sorts out the recyclables.
Money from the recyclables then goes into the garrison’s general account, which is spent on such things as maintenance and quality-of-life programs, garrison spokesman Dave McNally said Friday.
The garrison expects to earn at least $125,000 this calendar year from recycling, officials said.
