Dirtiest election ever, if you consider all the waste created

Placards, posters and ballots from an election create a lot of garbage. The 2022 presidential election may turn out to be one of the messiest ever, at least when it comes to garbage created, as so many single-use and Covid-19 protection items ..

A voter is putting the ballot in the box while wearing a single-use plastic glove for the 20th presidential election in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Placards, posters and ballots from an election create a lot of garbage.

The 2022 presidential election may turn out to be one of the messiest ever, at least when it comes to garbage created, as so many single-use and Covid-19 protection items were needed.

Early voting took place March 4 to 5 and election day was Wednesday.

Single-use plastic gloves have been singled out.

The gloves, used to protect voters from the coronavirus, are an environment problem given the energy needed to produce them and the greenhouse gasses generated.

Korea has 44 million voters, so 88 million gloves may have been needed.

"I used a pair of plastic gloves that the on-site staff gave to me at the entrance to the voting hall," said 37-year-old citizen who voted on March 5 in Mapo District, western Seoul. "But it did feel like a waste to look at all the gloves being piled up in the garbage bin."

Experts say anti-Covid measures don't have to involve single-use gloves. The spread of Covid-19 can be sufficiently prevented by washing and sanitizing hands, as well as wearing face masks and taking body temperatures, according to the Korea Zero Waste Movement Network.

"We can prevent Covid-19 and also protect the environment by washing our hands after voting rather than wearing gloves," the network said.

Presidential candidates' placards are hung up on the streets of western Daegu on Feb. 17. [KIM SUNG-TAE]

Plastic placards are piled up and discarded after an election [GREEN KOREA]

Other potential environmental waste is aplenty. The brochures with campaign platforms and placards are just some examples.

During the 19th presidential election in 2017, around 400 million brochures were printed and 52,545 placards were hoisted. Twice as many placards were allowed this year.

Promotional items for this election generated 7,312 tons of greenhouse emission, according to Green Korea, an environmental nonprofit. That's an amount absorbed by 803,522 pine trees during an entire year.

Local elections, which will take place June 1, are expected to give off even more greenhouse gasses because there are more candidates.

During the 2018 local election, 20,772 tons of greenhouse gas were emitted. The greenhouse gas caused by the two elections in 2022 comes to 28,084 tons in total, which is the same as using 540 million plastic cups.

The placards are particularly vexing, as they are mostly made of synthetic polyesters that do not decay when buried. They cannot be burned easily, because they give off toxic dioxin when incinerated. Only a quarter of the placards from the 2020 legislative election were recycled.

"Even recycling placards mean making waste, but just in different shape," said Heo Seung-eun, head of the Green Society team at Green Korea. "The only alternative is to not use them at all."

There have been revisions to the Public Official Election Act put forward to ban or cut the use of paper brochures or plastic placards, but it has not been put up for discussion yet at the National Assembly.

When Green Korea asked presidential candidates whether they agree on using digital signs instead of paper, and cutting down the use of placards, only Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party gave positive feedback.

Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party said that he endorses the use of recyclable placards and Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party did not answer.

BY JEONG JONG-HOON, YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]