With the aim of correcting some of the more wasteful and polluting household practices, Korean media and Korean-American environment activists recently launched a Zero Waste Campaign in the San Francisco Bay Area, encouraging customers in a local supermarket to use environment-friendly household products.

Korean media, together with Korean-American environment activists, recently gathered in the San Francisco Bay Area to launch the Zero Waste Campaign, which seeks to maximise recycling, minimise waste, reduce consumption and ensure that products are made to be reused, repaired, or recycled. The campaign also encourages individual households to choose healthier diets and environment-friendly household products.

Wearing green aprons, members of the Join Together Society, an international relief agency that spearheaded the Zero Waste Campaign, lined up in front of a Korean supermarket to introduce new, environment-friendly dishcloths and detergents to customers. The group demonstrated ways to wash dishes using wheat flour instead of detergents. Similar demonstrations have also been held near Korean churches and restaurants throughout the Bay Area.

Korea Times in San Francisco editor-in-chief, Tae Soo Jeong, said that the response from the Korean community has been positive. “Shoppers at local markets were at first sceptical, thinking we were trying to sell them something. When they realised what we were promoting, many of them even offered donations to our campaign.” said Jeong.

Inspired by the Clean Plate Pledge, a campaign initiated by a prominent Buddhist monk in South Korea, Zero Waste Campaign organisers said that they also intend to get people become more conscious of how much they consume, whether it be food, water, electricity, or gas.

While the Zero Waste Campaign is still in its initial stage, environment advocates are hopeful they will eventually be able to reach a wider audience, expanding beyond the Korean community.

Fifty percent of the proceeds generated by the Zero Waste Campaign will be donated to charities working to reduce global hunger, such as food aid programmes in India.

Source:
“Korean Media Spearheads Environmental Campaign” from New America Media, posted on August 24, 2007, <http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=00f340bf964e0212188209da2a4369fc>.