Food trash

How much food in America is thrown in the garbage or devoured by your garbage disposal?  Ever wonder how environmentally friendly the garbage disposal is?  Ever wonder about what happens to the food trash in landfills?

Well, Korea Recycles!

Here's just some quick facts without interpretation...

Direct landfill of food waste was forbidden to overcome the landfill problems and to improve the recycling rate since 2005.

http://www.jie.or.jp/pdf/7.Prof.Dong-HoonLee.pdf

South Korea uses about 4 million tons of plastic per year - including 1.6 million tons of plastic packaging material - but only 15 per cent is estimated to be reused. The Korean government is hoping that adding that the measure will reduce domestic rubbish by up to 30 per cent.
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Korea-steps-up-recycling



Korea fights this situation in various manners.
First, food trash is separated.

More than 80%of Food Waste (FW) is separately collected in Korea.  More than 80% of collected FW is carrying to feedstuff and compost, but low demands of each product are falling them into dilemma.

http://www.jie.or.jp/pdf/7.Prof.Dong-HoonLee.pdf

Korean law dictates that no food is to be thrown into the regular trash. 
http://aec.army.mil/usaec/newsroom/update/fall08/fall0807.html

Food waste includes uneaten portions of meals discarded by households or restaurants, any food substances discarded in the process of sales or distribution, trimmings from food preparation activities in kitchens and cafeterias, and food products that are thrown away due to degradation in their quality, damage, rot or the passing of its expiration date. http://eng.me.go.kr/content.do?method=moveContent&menuCode=res_cit_was_energy

People take down their food trash daily to the food trash can.  The baggy containing the food is thrown in another trash can.  A few times a week, a food trash truck comes and wisks it away.

Among household food wastes, the largest amount of waste are derived from fruit and vegetable peelings (70.6%), followed by rotten food (10.7%) and leftover side dishes (10.6%). http://eng.me.go.kr/content.do?method=moveContent&menuCode=res_cit_was_energy

People are given suggestions and guidance from organizations how to help minimize food trash:

Prepare medium size meals for your family.
Get creative with your left-overs and try a new recipe.
Food trash is filling up landfills.
Dream green for a better future.

http://www.seouleats.com/2010/06/food-for-thought-food-waste.html

"Now, with the help of a Swedish company, it is going to start converting that waste water into biogas, a type of clean fuel that can be used as power to heat buildings and even run vehicles.

"'If you dump it into the sea, methane will be produced," he said. "And methane released into the air is 21 times more aggressive than carbon dioxide. So it has a great impact on the greenhouse effect."

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2009/05/21/sweden-helps-skorea-convert-food-waste-into-clean-fuel.html

A great little article on Korean recycling can be found at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9508181.stm

English translation help?

In between worlds

It's such a different experience here.  Leaves me with such mixed emotions.  I'm torn between all these different worlds. USA on base, Korea off base.  So I'm in Korea, but I'm not.  Military is what brings us here and who we are with, but we're civilian, not military - very different culture.  And I have just left the working world and all this involvement in a million things in the world around me, and now I'm stay at home mom.  I wanted that... but culture shock! 

Grass cuttings

We went for a walk today along the river.  The walk was extremely short.  Yet in that five minutes or so, we saw eight people squatting with their kitchen knives, digging out weeds of some sort and placing them in plastic bags.

I am unsure what this could be.  Originally, I thought the first lady was going for the weed flowers, which I have seen sold in the stores.  However, it appeared to be more than just the flowers.  And the other folks didn't look to be harvesting flowers...but they were harvesting something growing in the grass on the public land!

In a brief internet search, my attempt at explaining this is: Naengi, or Shepherd's Purse.

From an official website:

"Naengi, with its unique smell, is the most beloved of Korea’s wild spring vegetables. Naengi is not broken down when boiled in water and is rich in protein, calcium, iron, and minerals. This wild vegetable contains so much vitamin A that just eating 100g of it constitutes a third of the daily requirement.

"According to oriental medicine practitioners, naengi is good for the health of the stomach and intestines, and helps the kidneys to remove toxic substances. Naengi’s roots improve the health of the eyes and are also said to be good for women who have just given birth since they contract the womb and reduce swelling."

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=713941

*None of these photos are mine.  They are from a web search on the particular plant.*

Yellow Dust (Asian Dust) in Korea!

Over the weekend, I thought I was having a sinus infection or some head-cold.  When I laid down, it just hurt!  Pressure!  Then I heard on the base radio station, “If you think you are having sinus problems, it’s really the yellow dust.  It’s over 500 today.”

“The worst-recorded yellow dust storm hit the nation on Saturday, causing the weather agency to issue its first nationwide warning, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.”  This was the 5th yellow sand storm this year.  Some areas hit 2,847 micrograms per cubic meter in one area!  1

So here’s the lowdown, with links, on yellow dust:

Comes from China’s deserts. 

“China’s expanding deserts now cover one-third of the country because of overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought. The shifting sands have led to a sharp increase in sandstorms — the grit from which can travel as far as the western United States.

“The Chinese Academy of Sciences has estimated that the number of sandstorms has jumped six-fold in the past 50 years to two dozen a year.” 2

According to one source, China isn’t the only offender:

Some of the dust hitting Korea every year comes from Mongolia and some comes from as far away as Uzbekistan, where Soviet-era policies turned much of the Aral Sea into a massive toxic dust bowl. 3

Not just a recent phenomena:

The first record of the dust phenomenon in Korea is found in the reign of Silla Dynasty's King Ahdalla (174 A.D.). It was called "Woo-To". At that time, the people believed that the God in the heaven became so angry that they lashed down dirt instead of rain or snow. This is why, whenever the King or his subjects saw a dust phenomenon, they would be frightened.

In the reign of Baekje Dynasty's King Kungusu in 379 A.D., there was the following record in April: "Dust fell all day long." There was a record that the sky of the Baekje's capital was darkened like night by dustfall in march in the reign of King Mu (606 A.D.).

Although these dust phenomena mainly occur during the springtime, there were some records of them occurred in winter as well. During the reign of Goguryeo Dynasty's King Bojang in 644 A.D., it was recorded that there was a red snow that fell from the sky in October. We can guess that Asian Dust was mixed with snow at that time.

The definition of Asian Dust event was introduced in the 「Goryeosa」 as follow: "There was dirt on clothes without getting wet by rain." It was called "Mae () or To-Woo". 4

Recent danger of dust:

The dust, while irritating, is not especially dangerous by itself [or at least so says this article]. What is dangerous is the cocktail of sulfur, heavy metals (such as mercury) and other pollutants the dust storms pick up as they cross northern China. 5

Additional toxins:

• Lead, cadium, copper and aluminum 6 
• Aerosolized dispersion of a Gobi Desert B. licheniformis (microbial transport). 7    

Dangers:  Dust particles, measuring one to 10 microns  8 or 301-500 parts per million in a cubic meter of air 9

In humans:

• Aggravate bronchitis and cause pinkeye, sinusitis and ear infections
• Exposure can cause respiratory problems,
• High particulate air-pollution levels have been linked to higher mortality rates.
• children living in Inner Mongolia have less lung capacity than children living on South Korea’s Jeju Island. 10 
• From a report in 2008: The state-sponsored Korea Environment Institute said the dust kills up to 165 South Koreans a year, mostly the elderly or those with respiratory ailments, and makes as many as 1.8 million ill. 11

Economic damage:

For South Korea… is estimated at up to 5.5 trillion won ($5.82 billion) 12  Wikipedia also has interesting stories about the economic hardship it poses.

Where to check for yellow dust:

• www.seoul.amedd.army.mil
• Additionally, some cell phone providers offer alert text messages, but supposedly only in Korean (google search for it!)

Asia’s solution: tree planting

The city government signed an accord… to invest 50 million won (42,000 dollars) in the planting project led by Future Forest, a South Korean environmental group operating in China for the past 10 years.

The investment will be used to purchase and plant some 72,000 poplar and desert willow trees in Inner Mongolia's Kubuqi Desert, 600 kilometres (370 miles) west of Beijing. 13

1.  http://www.sott.net/articles/show/205213-Korea-Nation-hit-by-worst-ever-yellow-dust-storm
2.  http://rokdrop.com/2010/03/20/yellow-dust-storms-plague-china-korean-peninsula/
3.  http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2010/03/220_16754.html
4.  http://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/asiandust/intro.jsp
5.  http://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/asiandust/intro.jsp
6.  http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,95882,00.html
7.  http://www.springerlink.com/content/en4544hh84148q03/
8.  http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,95882,00.html
9.  http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,95882,00.html
10.  http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,95882,00.html
11.  http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/32120
12.  http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/32120
13.  http://www.physorg.com/news176567358.html

Health Care in Korea

Each time I live overseas, I seem to end up at the local facility for some type of health care.  I find each experience immensely fascinating while comparing the ease, time, facility, quality of care and the expense. 

While walking into the facility, I saw a gentleman about to cross the street with IV-pole in hand, as he wheeled it along.  I believe I remember being told that here, food isn’t a given.  Family is expected to provide food. So it is not unusual to see someone in hospital garb within a block or two at a local restaurant. 

As always, we walked inside and registered.  This registration was easy - it was in the “international clinic,” so our nurse/guide spoke English.  She took us individually through the entire process, even walking us where we needed to go (whether that’s the norm or a slow day, I’m not sure).  We were taken to the pediatric unit.  There was a playground (like one you’d see outside for young children).  A few children were crawling around in it, the rest (15-20) were sitting with their mothers, waiting to be seen.

We were originally told we’d have to wait until after everyone who had appointments was seen.  I’m not sure what happened, but our daughter was immediately weighed and measured then brought straightaway to the doctor’s office.  His office was a typical office -- not of a doctor, but of an executive in Asia.  We sat on chairs - there was a sofa in the room - and chatted with the doctor. 

He analyzed the situation, wrote down his diagnosis and prescription.  But he kept it.  We were a bit confused that we weren’t given the Rx.  But we were told to go to the international clinic again (I believe).  We walked out a bit perplexed and returned to the nurse’s station.  They told us  that the Rx will be typed up and ready at the “cashier’s box.”  The international clinic then took us to the “cashier’s box” (booth) and we paid our fee: 35,000 won ($35) and received our receipt with all the information and another woman printed out the Rx.  We were told to exit the facility and we’d find a number of pharmacies to fill the Rx. 

The pharmacy was across the street and filled two Rxs for 15,000 won ($15). 

We returned to our car in the parking garage, showed the lady our ticket.  She asked for our hospital receipt.  We showed that to her.  We exited without a charge (for parking) and the entire outing was exactly one hour long.

That one hour included:

• Parking
• Finding where we went
• Registering as a new patient
• Walk-in appointment to see the doctor
• Paying in full
• Walking off the grounds to purchase the Rx - and purchasing it
• Returning to the car and driving out

Total expense ($50) included:

• International Clinic (translation/walk-through service)
• Doctor’s visit - not co-pay - but amount in full
• Two Rxs
• Parking (which was free)
  

I am currently researching South Korean health care system.  I’ll give an update on what I find out.  I'm attaching two PDFs I found, but they are a bit dated.  I'm going to explore more recent analyses.
www.stanford.edu/group/ethnoger/korean.html

I found an interesting blog on Korean Health Care.  Very in-depth.   Takes a while to read and some comments are a bit off-point and bias, but the author and some of the contributors discusses the issue very well.

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/01/healthcare-system-in-korea.html 

Korean Kindness to “Kinder”

I was leaving the home to pick up my husband and go to a couple’s night at a friend’s home.  I had daughter in an old (not very good) carrier. I had in one hand a huge bag filled with our version of the potluck for the evening at a friend’s house.  I had in the other hand the entire Pack ‘N Play.  Everything was huge and bulky and I was struggling. 

A middle aged Korean woman (somewhere between 50-60 years old... they age so gracefully here, I’m afraid to guess age but definitely a grandma), shared the elevator with me.  She was all dolled up.  She was tiny, and wearing huge practically-spiked heels and a gorgeous long fur.  She was beautiful and dressed to impress. 

As the elevator landed at the car-level, she saw my dilemma.  Without thought or warning, she grabbed the Pack ‘N Play.  Now, if this was a huge male, I would have graciously accepted.  But this was a little -- very little -- lady (who was my elder) all dressed up and in heels. 

I tried to take it back.  She wouldn’t allow it.  I pursued as she walked ahead of me to the cars.  She wouldn’t let go of the PnP.  And the language barrier didn’t matter, it was clear I was trying to get it back and clear she wasn’t about to give it back.

I finally conceded and showed her where we were parked.  She helped me put it into the trunk and made sure I was OK putting in my daughter. 

Wow!  That was so thoughtful. 

People are very kind -- and don’t have the slightest hesitation to intercede -- when it comes to children.  Be it helping to make them warmer in the winter, playing with them, or keeping them safe.  One man gave me his umbrella when I was caught in the rain with her in the carrier (I was lost and SO grateful to him -- and he just disappeared).  I am touched by their kindness.  Yes, sometimes -- oftentimes -- the warmth advice falls on ungracious ears, but it did help me realize how cold it was and how cold she was when I received it the first time.

So, I am repenting of my cultural annoyance of Korean intercession with parenting.  Kamsamnida (thank you), little lady with the beautiful fur.  You made my life so much easier for that brief moment.