‘You learn tricks to reduce it’: the smart bins measuring food waste in South Korea

Digital facilities that track wastage down to the gram have brought about behavioural change among users

Min Geum-nan walks towards a metal bin beneath her apartment block in Gangdong district, eastern Seoul carrying a small bag of vegetable peelings. She taps her resident card on the reader, the lid swings open, she empties the contents and scans again and a digital screen flashes: 0.5kg.

“You have no choice but to pay attention because you can see exactly what you’re wasting,” says Min, who has lived in the complex for 15 years and watched the system arrive in 2020.