580 mil. sheets, largely unread: Election pamphlet waste problem returns ahead of June 3 vote

“With the June 3 local elections approaching, election pamphlets are set to arrive at households nationwide, but concerns are growing that the mass mailings waste resources while going largely unread. Under the Public Official Election Act, election pamphlets must be mailed to every household no later than 10 days before election day. This year's election pamphlets were sent out by Sunday and are expected to arrive by month's end at the latest. The law caps pamphlets for local government heads at 12 pages and those for local council members at eight. The environmental cost is steep. According to the National Election Commission (NEC), election pamphlets for the 2022 local elections totaled 580 million sheets and weighed 12,853 tons, enough to consume some 210,000 trees. Yet few voters actually read them. A survey of 6,820 eligible voters by the Korean Government Employees' Union between February and March found that just 11 percent read the pamphlets in detail, while 52 percent skim them and 37 percent do not read them at all or throw them away unopened. Some lawmakers have tried to move

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