A postal worker is delivering booklet-style campaign brochures for the 21st presidential election into mailboxes at an officetel in Gangnam District, Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 9 (Korea Bizwire) — As South Korea concludes its 21st presidential election, the country is now contending with the environmental aftermath: a staggering amount of waste generated by campaign materials, including brochures, posters, and banners.
According to the National Election Commission (NEC) on June 8, over 580 million sheets of election brochures were distributed by mail during the 2025 campaign — approximately 24.16 million booklet-style pamphlets and 24.05 million flyers. If laid end-to-end in A4 format, the materials would circle the Earth four times.
The environmental toll is significant. Producing one ton of paper requires about 17 thirty-year-old trees, meaning an estimated 44,000 to 49,000 trees were felled for this election cycle — enough to reforest an area 2.5 times the size of South Korea’s Dokdo islets.
In addition to mailers, roughly 580,000 campaign posters were affixed to 83,000 public locations nationwide, stretching a length equivalent to 50 times the height of Mount Everest.
While the exact volume of banner waste from this election has not yet been calculated, previous national and local elections generated 1,235 and 1,557 tons of banner waste, respectively.
With 70% of banners incinerated or sent to landfills, their environmental impact is considerable. Burning a single polyester banner releases 3.5 to 4 kilograms of carbon dioxide — more than what a mature pine tree can absorb in six months — and the material itself is resistant to decomposition.
On the 4th, officials from the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission are seen removing campaign posters for the 21st presidential election from the wall of the Artist’s House in Dongsung-dong, Jongno District, Seoul. (Yonhap)
Despite the recurring environmental burden, experts note that current laws require campaign information to be equally accessible to all citizens, making it difficult to eliminate physical materials entirely. The NEC emphasized the challenge of reducing print materials given the needs of the digitally marginalized.
Environmental advocates, however, are calling for reform. “We live in a time when people opt to receive tax bills via mobile,” said Choi Ye-yong, director of the Citizens’ Institute for Environmental Health. “It’s time we offer voters the option to receive campaign materials digitally to mitigate environmental harm.”
The debate highlights a growing tension between civic accessibility and ecological responsibility, as South Korea grapples with modernizing its democratic processes without compromising environmental integrity.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
