Following my 5th edition, I'd like to introduce to you stores that only sell real substances in Korea in this last edition. In Korea, there are stores that make their own products, while others sell overseas products as well. But I'd like to focus on sharing the stories of stores that sell domestically produced items. It is my understanding that it is legally not allowed for cosmetics brands to operate a Refill Shop type store in Korea, and so this column introduces stores that sell groceries or everyday items with significance in terms of the design of their service.

 When talking about Korea's package-free shops, one cannot but mention 'The Picker'. If you have been interested in package-free shops, you might have heard about The Picker on the news. The Picker is Korea's first store to pursue a zero-waste platform. It sells similar items to Berlin's Unverpackt I mentioned in the last edition. The Picker, established by CEO Song Gyeongho in 2016, too sells nuts and grain products that are not individually packaged in a cereal bar refill shop way. I was pleased to hear that such a store opened in Korea. And recently, the store relocated and is offering a new service as an opening event, which I would like to introduce to you. This new service is called 'zero-waste products curation service'.

 The interesting part about this service design is that it is an 'education platform', which is key to spreading a culture. Most of us think of lectures when we say education platform, but it is notable that The Picker adopted a 'docent' method. The Picker designed a tour service of letting those who are unfamiliar with zero waste know what it is and explain the process of how products selected by The Picker reach the customer. It clearly demonstrates how the process of a general packaged product from production, distribution, sales, use to waste is different from the lifecycle of the package-free products of The Picker, and explains the difference using actual examples to clarify. The tour is offered at a fee, receiving limited number of applicants during a predefined time, much like how curators of museums or galleries would explain their exhibits. It is a service designed with the goal to attract more interest and understanding of the journey of the substances of the products we use so easily and throw away so easily. In distribution, one cannot stress enough the importance of packaging, but long-distance shipping and the selection of packaging material are inextricably linked. In other words, long distance shipping requires larger, bigger materials that go into shipping. And so, there is a definite causal connection to why stores display locally produced products more than overseas products. This is also in line with why I wish to introduce stores that offer domestic products rather than imported products especially when it comes to package-free, zero-waste products.

 If you can't visit the store right away, search for products sold on The Picker's online shop. It has the most items offered online out of all the shops introduced in this edition. It's also fun to compare with New York package-free shops' product lineup as the online store sells G'WRAP Reusable Beeswax Wrap and products such as domestically made reusable wipes.

 Bottle Factory is a disposable product-less coffee shop located in Yeonhui-dong. It is known that Korean actor Yoo Jitae and his wife took their children to the coffee shop for education purposes. Bottle Factory's service design is detailed in order to function well as a café that does not use disposable products.

 The shop does not have any disposable cups or straws or even tissues. Instead, there is an area in the corner where customers who bring their own cups can wash them after use and take them back in their bags. Also, Bottle Factory lends tumblers to people who didn't bring their own cups like how a library would lend books. It has a system where people can put down their names on lending cards, use the tumblers inside and outside of the shop, and then return them to a return box installed outside. It shows how much the coffee shop has put in place elements necessary to support the use of reusable cups by studying the behavior of people. But if one were to take a closer look, Bottle Factory is more than just a simple café.

 Visitors can read books on zero waste. The store also sells items like wrapping cloth to use instead of disposable material for when buying items, as well as a refill station for Australia's shower gel brand 'ecostore'. The store also offers many fun events, two of which I've taken part in and would like to share with you.

 Chaewoojang is a pop-up refill market held by Bottle Factory once a month. It is a market open for sellers who wish to take part in the Chaewoojang to bring their products in a big container and sell them in small quantities to buyers in containers they bring. It's called a market, but it's not the size one would generally think of. There are five to six booths in the small inside yard of Bottle Factory and two to three booths inside the store. There are no items that overlap. Items that are offered are for example, the original product itself, grain, or exotic spices, and processed items that are made by merchants themselves such as pesto, chocolate, crispy rice crust (Nurungji), and dog soaps. Anyone who visits Chaewoojang has to go with a lot of baggage from the beginning, because it is the market's rule that all items bought must be taken in buyer's own containers. There are some who sell small reusable containers as well, but the market opens to sell contents rather than to encourage people to buy new containers, so customers tend to prepare and bring bags, glass containers and cloth to use instead of plastic.

 Your Bottle Week was an event held by Bottle Factory October this year in collaboration with coffee shops and stores in the Yeonhui-dong Hongjecheon area. It was an event that gave customers stamp rewards for taking part in the event, buying food products using reusable containers at stores that Bottle Factory talked to of getting involved in the event. Information of the stores involved in the event was given on a map. It's easy to think that it takes customers to use reusable containers instead of disposable products for us to reduce waste. But if stores, or makers, for example prepare their drinks using paper cups for measurement and then serve them to customers in reusable cups, or use plastic bags to grab rice cakes and then place them in the reusable containers customers bring, there is no meaning in customers bringing their own cups and containers to the stores. There is no sense in customers using reusable containers if the stores keep using disposables in preparing their products. And there are many stores that do this. Your Bottle Week was a project that paid attention to this issue to help stores truly adjust their way of business to use reusable items in their process. And it was a way to find a solution to one of the challenges that consumers who wish to purchase package-free items face, which is "there are things I want to buy that aren't sold at that one zero waste shop", by encouraging stores that sell different things within the same district to join the movement together. Networking with the neighborhood is an essential process in creating a zero waste culture in the community.

 Almang@Mangwon Market is located in Mangwon, Seoul like its name. It is a project that was initiated to design a system allowing consumers to buy groceries at Mangwon Market without the use of disposable products. The goal is to remove all packaging that includes plastic and encourage buyers to take their purchased goods home. The biggest difference compared to other examples is that the project led and encouraged merchants and existing customers of the market to voluntarily take part in the movement. As mentioned in the previous example of Chaewoojang, Almang@Mangwon Market is mentioned frequently as an example that solved the issue of having to change the entire business process of merchants who've already maximized efficiency using plastic packaging and designed a voluntary service.

 Another difference is that the age of customers who use reusable grocery bags and small containers at Almang Market is higher than customers of other zero waste shops. It is a service design example that attempted at something new, while not changing much of the existing platform. But unfortunately, there are only around 20 shops at the market that are involved and some still use plastic bags during peak times. So, there is still some way to go. However, a notable point of this project is that although at first the merchants found this movement to be troublesome, they are becoming fans of the platform, spreading the word on zero waste life themselves as this platform became a way to promote their stores and more customers are happy with the idea. It would be great if there could be more service design elements that can lead to this type of motivation.

 Jigu is the only zero waste shop in this column located south of the Han River. Here, the store also sells fruits by the piece and nuts and grain products at a cereal bar.

 Interesting fact of this place is that the store sells used items in one corner of the store. It sells items that were once used at the store at a reasonable price. It reminded me of a flea market where people sell items they no longer needed by transferring ownership to others as a way to use an object or an item longer, while it also demonstrated that there is a way to change the purpose of an object itself. I included this store in my list as it was interesting how the store recognized packaging in a different perspective.

 The final store this column introduces is a coffee shop named Earth Us in Yeonnam-dong. There are an increasing number of shops that offer a take-away option of drinks in reusable cups, but it is not so simple to do the same when it comes to desserts. Earth Us encourages customers to take away dessert menus in a reusable container, too. There is a design element as well. There is a unique beauty to the photos of desserts in different containers brought by different customers. Enjoy the somewhat unorganized appeal of a refill store by taking a look at a few photos of desserts like cakes that easily break and are usually not served on so many different plates delicately placed on different types of plates and containers.

 When I first began to write my first column this year, I wanted to mention that the term 'sustainable' or 'sustainability' was frightening but decided not to. It's scary when you think about it because doing something sustainable in other words seem to mean that actions other than actions that are sustainable imply that we can no longer sustain the things we enjoy today. Like Greta Thunberg said, it is now time to act as no one is too small to make a difference.

 I am part of a design team, so I looked for things we can do with design. But my readers, you, might find other things you can do in making big or small decisions in your positions and things you can practice in your everyday life. Writing this column was an opportunity for me to realize that there are more members who are interested in this issue, more than I expected, and so I arranged a small KNO.C.K lecture (I say lecture, but just a small gathering to discuss sustainable life) as a way to meet them.

 I hope it serves as an opportunity to try the products I bought from the stores I introduced in this column and discuss and think together about the design element in making changes to the goods and services we see in our daily life towards the goal of sustainable life. If you are interested, please leave a comment on field KNO.C.K on Talk Room.

 Lastly, I'd like to end this column sharing a link to the video "Accidental Environmentalists" created by IKEA with a message that pursuing sustainable life is not a difficult task. I deeply appreciate all readers for your interest and support in my column series for the past year.