During my first week after moving in, I was told I had to buy trash bags at a convenience store. But the bags are different again. There are bags for general waste, and food waste has its own separate ones. In apartment buildings, some bins only open when you tap a card. Why is it so much trouble? ## Why do we pay for trash bags? Korea is a small country, so it ran short of landfills to bury its trash. So in 1995, it introduced the "volume-based waste fee system." It's a system where you pay for as much as you throw away. The disposal cost is included in the price of the bag. The more you throw away, the more it costs, so people end up producing less trash. ## Why do we throw away food waste separately? Food waste is wet and heavy. If you just bury it, it rots and smells, and dirty water can seep into the ground. That's why people started separating it from general trash. ## Why do you tap a card to throw it away? The collected food waste is reused as things like animal feed or compost. To do that, you need to know how much there is, and it can't be mixed with plastic bags or other foreign materials. When you tap your card, the bin weighs the waste. Each household is charged for exactly what it throws away. That's how the pay-as-you-throw system, where households that throw away more pay more, extends to food waste too. In short, the three answers come down to one. The idea is that land is scarce, you take responsibility for what you throw away, and food waste should be reused as a resource. There are also some tips you can use right away. The system differs from region to region, and some places use special bags, cards, or stickers, each on its own. When you move, ask the management office or the district office first. Bones, shells, and onion skins are often treated as general waste, so if you're not sure, check the district office's guidance.