A photo of the key participants in the March 27 meeting between Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corp. led by President Suh Ju-won and the True Owner Group. (Photo: SL)

Sudokwon Landfill Management Corp.(SL) held a meeting with the True Owner Group to set up the direction and the tasks for reform on March 27, SL said recently.

The civic organization, made up of various other civic organizations, academics, public organizations, labor unions, cooperative institutions and experts, has been holding the meeting with SL since last year.

The meeting was attended by eight outside members and five members representing True Owner and SL and dealt with such subjects as setting up reform subjects for each unit for 2019 to decide on the direction of reform to realize the social value of SL, the company said.

The meeting also decided to follow government policies to realize a country that embraces reform by adding the human rights management as a reform subject to make the country a fair economic society. SL also conducted a check up on safety as part of the 2019 National Safety Check in cooperation with the reps of various connected firms with the arrival of the ice melting season.

The joint safety check went ahead with the experts of SL together with the experts from various related organizations such as the Korea Industrial Safety Association, the Seonjin Engineering, and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, among others.

SL also conducted a campaign for safe environment and driving for the trucks transporting garbage to Nos. 3-1 landfill sites which was kicked off last year with the onset of spring.

The campaign centered on lowering fine dusts in the air which has become a major issue in the country and for safe driving pointing out such key issues as speed limits, keeping proper distances from cars in front, and others that the garbage trucks should uphold at the landfill sites.

The Ministry of Environment agreed with the three autonomous administrations to allow Sudokwon Landfill Management Corp. to extend a landfill project period for 10 more years.

The ministry and key officials of the Seoul Metropolitan City, the Incheon Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi Province agreed at a meeting on June 28 to extend the project for 10 more years following a discussion on follow-up measures on the improvement of the Sudokwon landfill agreement made on Jan. 9.

The four parties at the meeting also agreed to transfer the landfill right permit management to Incheon City following the legislation of related laws which will allow Incheon to take the proceeds of the sale of the landfill land, fees and additional charges related to the sale of the landfill, which amount to more than 1 trillion won.

The three autonomous administrations had no choice but to extend the landfill project period, which was to end in 2016 while two landfill areas still remain unused.

They agreed to extend the landfill project period in lieu of using part of the second landfill area as a dump for three more years until they can find a dump in another areas. They hope to make that landfill free of garbage. They may use part of the third landfill as a waste dump for the remaining seven years of the extension.

Officials of Sudokwon Lanfill Management are not thrilled by the decision to transfer landfill management rights to Incheon City, which means they will be subject to audit of their operations by the city and the city council instead of the Ministry of Environment and the National Assembly.

They don’t feel they can get fair audits from the city and the city council, for various reasons, and execute their budgets as they wanted to. The union is also against the transfer as it means a downgrade for their company to a local entity supervised by a municipal authority.

Social groups in Incheon are against the transfer of the rights and the extension of the landfill projects for fear that private citizens and business will be barred from operating landfills for business purposes. They also want to use part of the landfill for a garbage dump as they have had a hard time finding a suitable site.