Organizers: The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award and World Cleanup Day

A 3D map of the school neighborhood in Geochang-eup. Tall orange bars (cigarette butts) stand on the back road between Geochang Girls' High, Geochang Girls' Middle, Geochang High and Saetbyeol Middle School. Blue bars (plastic bags) stand in front of Geochang Daesung High, and brown bars (paper) in the alley next to the girls' high school

Most cigarette butts hereMost plastic bags hereMost paper hereMost other items here (plastic, cans, glass, etc.)

The whole school neighborhood of Geochang-eup
Bar height = items picked up at that spot (25 m × 25 m square)
Color = most common type
Shapes = three zones

Green Action Challenge × News from Geochang Heungsadan

Around nine schools,
where were the cigarette butts?

This issue tells the story of the Geochang Heungsadan team

September 9 to September 16, 2026

Hello! Here is news from Green Action, part of the World Cleanup Day award program.
I'm Kwonseon Yoo, the editor.

This story comes from Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province. On September 9 and 16, 5 friends from Geochang Heungsadan (Young Korean Academy) walked around a part of Geochang-eup where nine schools sit close together. They picked up 552 pieces of litter. When we marked each spot on a map, it looked like litter gathered in each place for a different reason.

Three things the data told us

1. Butts just outside the no-smoking line

On the back road (Zone A), 81 butts were found just outside the no-smoking line.¹

2. Plastic wrappers in front of the school

In front of Daesung High (Zone B), near a convenience store, there were more plastic wrappers than butts: 54 of 102 pieces of litter.

3. The alley is inside the no-smoking zone

All 28 butts in the studio-apartment alley (Zone C) were found inside the no-smoking zone.

In this issue

1 Three zones, three reasons
2 Cigarette butts just outside the no-smoking line
3 Plastic wrappers left on the snack street
4 What each zone needs

One. Our neighborhood map

Litter gathered in each place
for a different reason

The taller the bar, the more litter was found there. The bar color shows the most common type of litter.

The three zones from above

Here are the three zones seen from above. Litter gathered differently in each zone. We drew a simple example for each type.²

Map seen from above. The three zones (A Back road behind the school walls, B Snack street in front of Daesung High, C Studio-apartment alley by the girls' high school) are drawn as colored shapes, and litter records are shown as dots

Dots = litter records (bigger = more items)
Zone size: A about 1.0 ha, B about 1.4 ha, C about 0.5 ha
School boundaries based on OpenStreetMap

Zone A type: Back road just outside the no-smoking line

Back road behind the school walls about 1.0ha, 142×76m

A narrow road between Geochang Girls' High, Geochang High and Saetbyeol Middle School. Out of 161 pieces of litter, 116 were cigarette butts.

Why did butts gather just outside the no-smoking line?

Zone B type: Street near the school where snack wrappers are left

Snack street in front of Daesung High about 1.4ha, 177×80m

A road in front of Daesung High and Daesung Middle School, about 50 meters from a convenience store. Out of 102 pieces of litter, 54 were plastic bags and wrappers.

Do people drop wrappers exactly where they open them?

Zone C type: Residential alley inside the no-smoking zone

Studio-apartment alley by the girls' high school about 0.5ha, 123×44m

An alley lined with studio apartments and small apartment buildings. Out of 64 pieces of litter, 28 were butts and 20 were paper.

Do the people who live here know their alley is a no-smoking zone?

Two. The 30-meter no-smoking zone

Cigarette butts were pushed
just outside the no-smoking line

The area within 30 meters of a school boundary is a no-smoking zone. We drew this line on the map. The butts had gathered just outside the line (Zone A) and in a residential alley inside it (Zone C). It is worth paying attention to exactly where these lines end.

The area within 30 meters of a school is a no-smoking zone

Since August 17, 2024, smoking has been banned within 30 meters of elementary, middle and high school boundaries. Anyone who breaks the rule can be fined up to 100,000 won.

Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare press release, “No smoking around daycare centers and schools” (2024)

552

Litter we picked up together

Schools on the map

Butts inside the no-smoking zone

Three. What did we pick up?

Plastic wrappers were left
along the snack street

Cigarette butts were the most common, with 247, followed by plastic bags and wrappers with 135.³

Cigarette butts

247 (45%)

Plastic bags & wrappers

135 (24%)

Paper

72 (13%)

Plastic

50 (9%)

PET bottles

17 (3%)

Other

31 (6%)

Counted from the app: each time a piece of litter was picked up, its type was tapped in the app

Shall we figure it out together?

Why did so many cigarette butts gather in Zone A? Look at the clues on the map and talk about it with a friend.

Clue 1 81 of the 116 butts were 30 to 60 meters from a school boundary, just outside the no-smoking line
Clue 2 Both sides of the road are school grounds, and there is a cemetery and a stormwater pond at the north end
Clue 3 It is a narrow back road, hidden behind the main road in front of the schools

There is no clear answer yet. If you walk Zone A again before the challenge ends and check if butts have piled up again, you will have one more clue.

Four. What our neighborhood needs

What does each zone need?

Think back to the three zones you saw from above. Litter gathered for different reasons in each zone, so each zone may need something different.

Back road behind the school walls
What would stop butts from gathering just outside the no-smoking line? A sign, or a proper place to throw them away?

Snack street in front of Daesung High
What is needed between the convenience store and the school so that snack wrappers aren't left on the street?

Studio-apartment alley by the girls' high school
What would help the people living here know that their alley is a no-smoking zone?

What does this place need,
and what should it become?

Leave your ideas as a voice note. We will share them in the next issue.

Things you can do

Data plogging

Pick up litter and record its location and type in the app

Voice note

Record what this place needs, in your own voice

One more thing for your next walk
Please take one photo before you pick up the litter. Seeing whether the butts were in the middle of the road or piled against a wall is the best clue.

Notes

1. This is 30 to 60 meters from the school boundary, based on the school boundary drawn on OpenStreetMap.
2. The type drawings are not real buildings. They are simple examples drawn from features we found in each zone's records.
3. Plastic wrappers are small and light, so the wind easily blows them under flower beds and walls.

One month left

The challenge continues until October 31

Thank you to the Geochang Heungsadan friends and teachers who cleaned up the roads near their schools every Wednesday afternoon. Thanks to your records, the hidden spots of the school neighborhood appeared on the map.

We pick up litter and data together. Visit the Green Action Challenge

For questions about the World Cleanup Day award program,
please email contact@itaseoul.org.

Itaseoul (nonprofit)
contact@itaseoul.org kywa.ita.city

Counting period: September 9 to October 3, 2026 (last activity September 16)
Public activity records of 5 participants who chose Geochang Heungsadan as their award center when they got their participant numbers
2 excluded records were not counted
School boundaries are based on the school grounds drawn on OpenStreetMap
Buildings and roads © OpenStreetMap contributors
Itacity citizen cleanup records (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Around nine schools, where were the cigarette butts? (Green Action Challenge center news)

Around nine schools,where were the cigarette butts?