Tell us about SSJ Morning Club, the group that starts mornings in Seoul Forest with plogging.
SSJ Morning Club is a neighborhood plogging community of people who love Seongsu-dong and Seoul Forest. Every Sunday morning, we meet in Seoul Forest for ‘sseujup’ (short for ‘sseuregi jupgi,’ meaning ‘picking up trash’ in Korean) and a coffee chat. People can drop in with no pressure. As we walk together, pick up trash, and fall into conversation along the way, we’re building loose-knit ties across the neighborhood.

Q1. When did you first become interested in plastic reduction?
While walking in Seoul Forest, we noticed more trash scattered throughout the park than we expected. It was a place we visited often and cared about, so instead of just walking past the trash, we wanted to clean the place up ourselves. From then on, we did more than walk through Seoul Forest; we started picking up whatever trash we could see. That small effort to look after a familiar place ourselves grew into SSJ Morning Club’s weekly group plogging.

Q2. Why did you decide to join FANTASTIC CREW with Amorepacific?
As regular users of Amorepacific products, we’ve long been interested in the company’s empty-container collection, and the GREENCYCLE campaign’s goal of finding new uses for resources resonates with us too. We saw both as a natural fit with SSJ Morning Club’s plogging.

We saw FANTASTIC CREW Season 2 as a chance to bring the plogging we’d been doing with our crew into a larger environmental campaign. We decided to join because we wanted to take a familiar activity further, in a new way.

Q3. If there’s a moment from your time with FANTASTIC CREW that stands out most, tell us about it.
The moment that stands out most is when we came across the coffee truck Amorepacific had sent to cheer us on during a plogging outing. We felt someone was watching and supporting the work we’d kept up all along, which made it even more special. We also remember relaxing over coffee with our crew members and talking about what we do. In that moment, it wasn’t only about acting for the environment; we also felt the joy of doing it together.

Q4. Has FANTASTIC CREW brought about any changes within SSJ Morning Club?
FANTASTIC CREW Season 2 has led us to look at environmental action from a broader perspective. Before, we focused on picking up the trash left in Seoul Forest ourselves. Now we also think about what happens after a product is used, all the way to collection and resource circulation.

In particular, seeing Amorepacific’s cosmetic container collection up close showed us that we can practice resource circulation not only when we’re out plogging but in everyday life as well. The biggest change has been that our efforts to protect the environment have spread from our outings into every part of daily life.

Q5. What are some ways to reduce plastic in everyday life?
We think keeping up the most basic habits matters more than grand gestures. We try to use tumblers, put trash only where it belongs, and sort recyclable plastic properly. We’ve also used the handkerchief we received through FANTASTIC CREW more often than we expected. We’d hardly ever thought of using a handkerchief before, but swapping tissues for one showed us a new way to cut down on the single-use items we go through every day.

Q6. What efforts are needed to bring about social change?
To reduce plastic, it’s important to look not only at the moment we use something but also at how we buy it and have it delivered. We can reuse the cushioning that comes in parcels instead of throwing it away, and when ordering several products online, we can choose combined shipping to cut unnecessary packaging.

Another approach is to change the form of the products we use and the containers they come in. We believe a steady reduction in plastic comes from small changes, like using bar soap or solid shampoo instead of liquid products, and choosing refills over buying new containers.

Q7. Were there areas where working with Amorepacific created extra synergy?
Working with Amorepacific gave SSJ Morning Club the chance to share what we’ve been doing in Seoul Forest with other environmental crews. The greatest synergy came from meeting crews working in different natural settings, each in its own way, and trading experiences and ideas with them.

Seeing how each crew works gave us new ideas, and we also saw possibilities for things we could do together in the future. It meant a lot to see that the neighborhood plogging we’d been doing could connect with environmental work on a wider scale.

Q8. Is there anything you’d like to leave us with as a member of FANTASTIC CREW?
The plastic we throw away today could eventually find its way back to us.

The plastic problem can feel overwhelming, but we don’t think tackling it has to start with grand gestures. We want to keep taking small, everyday actions together and make changes that protect the planet and its ecosystems for years to come.

Q9. Finally, how would you sum up SSJ Morning Club’s journey with Amorepacific in a single phrase?
Plogging in Seoul Forest with Amorepacific was, quite literally, fantastic.

What began as small ‘sseujup’ sessions on Sunday mornings in Seoul Forest led to new environmental practices and to meeting a wide range of crews. Going forward, SSJ Morning Club will keep plogging steadily, in an easygoing way that anyone can join.

Next Crew
FANTASTIC CREW in NATURE. FANTASTIC CREW’s work for nature carries on. Seoul Forest and the city, the mountains and the waters off Jeju, and even beneath the sea’s surface. Follow the stories of all six crews in turn, each working at a different site and cutting down on plastic in its own way. Up next is the story of PLOVING KOREA, a group of people protecting the waters off Jeju through ‘ploving,’ which combines freediving and plogging.

Learn More
Curious about the earlier stories from FANTASTIC CREW Season 2?

#3 GOGODIVE, who dive beneath the East Sea to protect it, collecting discarded fishing gear and marine debris (Click)