The Intl. WeLoveU Foundation’s Global Campaign, ‘#recyclingchallenge’ in Cooperation With the Magazine ‘Woman Donga’

Disposable items become garbage if they are thrown away, but if they are properly separated and disposed, they become a recyclable resource. On June 5, the Intl. WeLoveU Foundation carried out the global campaign, ‘#recyclingchallenge,’ in cooperation with the magazine Woman Donga from May 21 to June 15 in celebration of World Environment Day.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people try to minimize physical contact with others, and non contact consumption such as making use of delivery service has increased, resulting in sharply increased use of disposables. “#recyclingchallenge” is an online campaign to establish a desirable culture of separating and recycling waste, and paving the path for resource circulation.

Many people from all around the world participated in this campaign, with interest in environmental issues. They posted photos and videos of separating and recycling waste with the hashtag, “#recyclingchallenge,” on their social media and online community.

There were a total of 1,182 participation works; the majority of them were about correct separation and recycle of waste, by washing the dirt off from disposables and by separating what we are likely to mindlessly throw away such as tooth pastes, envelops, and tissue boxes, into paper, vinyl, and plastics. Some posts shared brilliant tips on recycling disposables, and some others shared stories on drawing participation from their families, co-workers, and friends. The magazine “Woman Donga” plans to select 30 outstanding participation works, introduce them through the July issue of the magazine, and deliver up-cycled bags made with 16 plastic bottles to each winner.

Sarang Umool (from a Naver blog), who manages a parking lot, introduced how to correctly separate and recycle waste, which he learned recently, and said, “I installed a separate waste collection stand at my work place and has been separating trash, thinking I’ve contributed to saving the environment. However, through the campaign, I found out that the way I separated waste was wrong.”

Ykirenekim (from Instagram), who turned disposables into flowerpots, shared her knowhow on recycling, saying, “I recycled Styrofoam, plastics, and cup noodle containers to make a small garden on my veranda.” Awake0o0 (from Instagram) pointed out the need for changing the production structure to reduce the use of disposables, saying, “As I’ve not used the straw attached to the milk container for a while, I’ve collected so many straws. Unless the production structure changes, there will always be unnecessarily generated trash.” RickyRo715 (from Twitter), who participated in the campaign in the United States, encouraged his neighbors online to participate in this campaign, saying, “Let’s participate in #recyclingchallenge! It’s not too late yet to take action for changes.”

The WeLoveU Foundation has been conducting the “Saving the Earth Movement” by carrying out the “Clean WORLD Movement” and “Clean Action Campaigns” in 51 countries. The WeLoveU will continue to perform diverse activities with citizens in order to protect the world environment, which is the biggest common goal of the international community.