NAJU — The city of Naju in Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special Self-Governing City said its 2026 Naju Yeongsangang Festival drew a record 540,000 visitors while cutting waste through a full switch to reusable containers, an outcome officials cast as evidence of the city's proactive administration.
The festival, held recently around the Yeongsangang Garden area, operated a reusable container system, the city said on the 21st. The program was designed to cut single-use items across the venue and build resource recycling into the event itself.
The city supplied reusable containers to 19 food pavilions, 20 food trucks and the Agriculture Festa, along with other main food and sales booths. A specialized cleaning contractor collected the used containers, then washed, sterilized and disinfected them before returning them to circulation.
About 580,000 reusable containers were used during the festival. Naju estimated that cut roughly 5.8 tons of waste and 22.4 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions — comparable to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed in a year by about 2,200 30-year-old pine trees.
This year's festival spread across a venue of about 500,000 square meters. To reduce inconvenience for visitors, the city installed dedicated return bins in main zones and expanded the number of supply and return booths. Private monitors were also deployed on site to help collect containers, manage the return facilities and keep the surrounding area clean.
The venue stayed clean even as large crowds gathered, the city said. Residents and tourists also took part, returning containers to the collection points themselves after eating and drinking.
The shift, the city said, turned the event from a festival people leave behind into one they help clean up and complete.
Naju has already introduced the reusable container system at its Yeongsanpo skate and Korean beef festival. The city plans to keep expanding single-use reduction and reusable container programs, centered on local festivals.
The Naju Yeongsangang Festival went beyond a local event, the city said, serving as both a flagship festival that drew 540,000 people and a sustainable one that factored in the environment.
"A festival venue that draws so many residents and tourists generates a large amount of waste in a short period," Naju Mayor Yoon Byung-tae said. "Using reusable containers is an important change for cutting waste and putting carbon neutrality into practice." He added, "We will establish an eco-friendly festival culture that residents take part in, and build Naju into a sustainable resource-recycling city."