I dread rainy days in Korea, not because of the danger of getting jabbed in the eye by one of the million umbrellas wielded by aggressive ahjumas, not because there is a very high chance that I am going to get soaked by a bus driving past me at a million miles a minute, and not because the sidewalks in Korea are dangerously slippery when wet. So why do I dislike rainy days in Korea so much??? One simple reason: plastic umbrella bags.
On a rainy day most stores, restaurants, and offices put an umbrella bag dispenser at their front door. Before a customer enters the store they slip their wet umbrella into the dispenser and their umbrella is shroud in a thin plastic bag with handles. Now, this may seem like a good idea, but what do you think happens to these plastic bags when the customer leaves to brave the rain again? In many cases the bags are discarded onto the ground, which can cause drainage blockage and also can add to the plastic particle issue if the bag is carried into the river system. Some businesses place a garbage can close to the door so that the bags can be disposed of properly, but then again this is only adding to the massive plastic problem that the world is now facing.
These umbrella bags do not fit into the environmental picture that South Korea is trying to portray. By law you have to pay for plastic shopping bags at the mart, but you can use as many plastic umbrella bags as you please on a rainy day - and you do not have to recycle them... something does not add up here.
Are these bags really necessary? Shaking an umbrella out before entering a store has always done the trick, or better yet having an umbrella holder at an entrance eliminates the use of plastic and prevents dripping umbrellas from coming inside. While I am living in Korea I will continue to discourage people from using these bags, and I hope that these dispensers do not find their way to other parts of the world.
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