Why Seoul is paying residents to throw away less food

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Points will be credited through Seoul’s Eco Mileage system and can be used like cash.

PHOTO: CHANG W. LEE/NYTIMES

SEOUL – Long treated as a household nuisance, food waste in South Korea has grown into a climate, environmental and economic issue of national scale.

The country generates significantly more food waste per person than the global average, and the cost of collecting and processing it now amounts to tens of trillions of won each year.

In response, Seoul is rolling out a new incentive-based policy to curb what residents throw away in the first place.

On Dec 17, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced a new “food waste reduction points system”, under which households that cut their food waste output will receive cash-equivalent rewards.

The program targets households that use radio-frequency identification, or RFID-based food waste bins, which automatically weigh discarded food.

Residents who reduce their food waste by 10 to 30 per cent or more compared with the same period a year earlier will qualify for up to 5,000 points per evaluation period, worth about 5,000 won (S$4.40).

Points are credited through Seoul’s Eco Mileage system and can be used like cash, including for tax payments, utility bills such as gas and management fees, or converted into local gift certificates such as Onnuri vouchers.

To ensure fairness, the city said it has built a new data-based evaluation system, allowing residents to check their reduction rates and earned points using verified disposal data from RFID machines.

Applications for the first half of next year will be accepted from Jan 5, 2026 to Jan 23, 2026