Beneath

Earth Volunteer Team

The Earth Volunteer Team is a volunteer initiative that collects used paper cartons directly from cafés and helps return them to the resource cycle.

Join the team Education

Who we are

The Earth Volunteer Team is a volunteer initiative that collects used paper cartons from cafés across Seoul and other local communities.

The initiative is currently active in two areas: Chungpa-dong in Yongsan-gu, and Yeonhui-dong in Seodaemun-gu.

Originated from Yongsan Chungpa-dong, our team has been recruiting volunteers for regular activities since March 2026, and is now open to everyone who wants to join, with volunteer work taking place every week across both sites.

A volunteer holding open a Beneath collection bag at a café counter while a barista hands over a used carton.
Volunteers walking down a narrow sunlit alley with collection bags.
Two volunteers in masks carrying collection bags through a café corridor.
Volunteers carrying collection bags of used cartons along a Chungpa-dong street.

Collection sites 02

Our different collection sites

A street in Chungpa-dong on the collection route: volunteers walking with bags past the shopfronts.Yongsan-gu

Chungpa-dong

  • Collection 12:45 – 1:30
  • Every week
  • 37.55°N, 126.97°E

Where the team began. Volunteers collect from 14 cafés on the route.

  • Cartons rescued12,480
  • Recycled tissue rolls96
  • Trees protected8
  • Value recycled₩1,240,000
Join the team
Yeonhui-dong from above: the streets and rooftops of the collection route.Seodaemun-gu

Yeonhui-dong

  • Collection 3:00 – 5:00
  • Every week
  • 37.57°N, 126.93°E

The second route, with 9 cafés joined.

  • Cartons rescued7,320
  • Recycled tissue rolls56
  • Trees protected5
  • Value recycled₩720,000
Join the team

A second life
for the material.

The Earth Volunteer Team visits cafés directly to collect paper cartons, creating new connections in the resource cycle and giving materials that might otherwise be thrown away a second life. Together, we are changing the way recycling works — and helping design a better, more circular system for our communities.

Volunteers gathered outside a Seoul café with collection bags on a pickup morning.

Turning discarded paper cartons from cafés back into resources — together

As the consumption of milk and other beverages at cafés continues to grow, so does the amount of paper cartons being discarded.

Despite their high recycling value, paper cartons are often mixed with other wastepaper and discarded as general waste. Cafés are especially important collection points because they generate large quantities of paper cartons consistently in one place.

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We need your help to end climate injustice and inequality

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Inside a jjokbang room in Seoul: a bare bulb lit above a worn door, coats and a rucksack hung on the beams.