Gangnam-gu, led by District Mayor Kim Hyeon-gi, will hold an environmental education and resource-recycling volunteer event Thursday at the Gangnam Environmental Resource Center's exhibition hall, joined by 13 YouTube creators affiliated with AG-ENT.
The Gangnam Environmental Resource Center is a district-run resource-recycling facility at 49 Heolleungno 745-gil in Yulhyeon-dong. It spans a total floor area of 11,011.69 square meters across one above-ground floor and three below-ground floors, handling recyclable sorting, food waste intermediate collection, and the transfer and sorting of bulky household waste. Its daily processing capacity is 80 tons of recyclables, 300 tons of food waste and 35 tons of bulky waste.
From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. that day, participants will receive environmental education from a specialist instructor before sorting plastic bottle caps by material and color. The sorted caps will then be processed through an injection molding machine and transformed into whale-shaped toothpaste squeezers. By experiencing firsthand how discarded materials become new everyday products, participants will learn the importance of proper waste separation and resource recycling.
The event was planned in partnership with the Gangnam-gu Volunteer Center. Rather than a one-off activity, the initiative focuses on using creators with strong online followings to communicate the need for resource recycling in an accessible and engaging way.
The creators plan to film the entire education and volunteer process and share it across their individual YouTube and SNS channels. Through content that reflects each creator's personal style, they will introduce the bottle cap sorting and upcycling process, with the aim of encouraging citizens to adopt eco-friendly habits in their daily lives.
"Showing through creators' videos how discarded bottle caps are transformed into new everyday products will make it easier and more enjoyable to convey the value of resource recycling," District Mayor Kim said. "We will continue to develop eco-friendly resource-recycling programs that resonate with and engage people of all generations."
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