The price for a Meare bottle is 7,000 won, and the cultural group plans to collect 700,000 won by selling 100 Meare bottles until February 28. The raised funds will be used to purchase 500 books to be donated to a local library. (image courtesy of Place What?)
JEJU, Feb. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Discarded entrance tickets, flight tickets and specialty snack packages are selling as souvenirs, recalling memories of trips to Jeju. A cultural group in Jeju is holding an experimental event, selling garbage discarded by visitors as souvenirs to raise funds to help establish a local library.
Place What?, a Jeju-based cultural space, is conducting the pilot project by collecting tourists’ trash and putting items into 500g glass bottles titled “Meare,” or echo in English, which can be reminders of trips to Jeju for visitors. The souvenir will contain items such as discarded flight tickets, receipts, mandarin orange chocolate packages and tickets for tourist attractions.
The price for a Meare bottle is 7,000 won, and the cultural group plans to collect 700,000 won by selling 100 Meare bottles until February 28. The raised funds will be used to purchase 500 books to be donated to a local library.
The group has collected almost 1 ton of trash at hiking trails, beaches, museums and other tourist attractions, and is producing the Meare bottles by picking out worthy items for souvenirs.
Park Myeong-ho, manager of the Meare project, said, “We worried about the notion of selling trash as souvenirs. However, we agreed that the discarded trash can be a good souvenir, helping people remember their visit to Jeju.”
“When visitors gain something at Jeju, they should pay for it in a concrete manner. However, their payments are concentrated on a few business owners. They also discard too much waste in Jeju. With that in mind, the project aims to benefit all the residents in Jeju,” he added.
The Meare bottles can be bought at the Place What? in Jeju city, and through the project’s website (https://tumblbug.com/ko/meare).
By John Choi (johnchoi@koreabizwire.com)
