Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corp. (SLC) is expected to ban waste from local government areas where residents are opposed to establishing waste treatment facilities, such as incinerators.
SLC said it plans to revise regulations related to waste intake, which are to go into effect in November.
Under the new regulations, the SLC president would let its landfill site ban sewage from local government bodies whose residents are opposed to creating or expanding waste treatment facilities, such as incinerators, reutilizing and classifying & sorting garbage.
The SLC president would be required to inform the related local government of the ban one week before waste is turned away, when the opponents return to ‘yes’, the SLC president would allow its landfill site the waste to be accepted immediately.
An SLC official said, “It is inevitable for SLC to have its landfill site ban the intake of waste as a means to address the NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) syndrome in which residents recognize the necessity of waste treatment facilities but oppose their installment in their area, disrupting projects to lighten and reutilize waste.”
SLC President Shin Chang-hyun contributed an article to a vernacular daily on realistic alternatives to addressing the issue of securing landfill sites in the Seoul metropolitan area. The following are excerpts of the article.
In 2015, the Ministry of Environment (MOE), the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Incheon Metropolitan City Government agreed on a principle in which Seoul and Gyeonggi-do each treat their own waste they produce in consideration of the damage Incheon residents have sustained while taking in waste from the Seoul metropolitan area via the Sudokwon Landfill Site.
Administration related to the environment is a representative metropolitan administration as it comes to air pollution, water pollution and waste issues.
Incheon residents have suffered difficulties from heaps of garbage from Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, whereas Seoulites and Gyeonggi-do residents suffer from pollution caused by cars from Incheon.
Gyeonggi-do residents are suffering damage caused by stringent environment restrictions over the Paldang Lake, responsible for supping tap water to Seoul and Incheon.
The Seoul metropolitan area is one environment community.
Citing damage to Seoulites, vehicles from Incheon cannot be denied, and citing damages to Gyeonggi-do, supplying tap water to Incheon and Seoul cannot be stopped.
Citing damages to Incheon residents, it is not desirable to stop treating garbage from Seoul and Gyeonggi-do.
It is significant for 20 million people in the Seoul metropolitan area to share air, water and waste and share costs according to the “polluter pays principle.”
Figures released by the Ministry of Environment showed that there are 216 life waste landfill sites, and out of the total, 62 and 53 are to run out of space by 2025 and 2030, respectively.
If the existing landfill sites are not expanded, finding new landfill sites is a must-be thing. But conflicts over securing new landfill sites can cause a huge time and costs.
MOE, SMG and Gyeonggi provincial government agreed to offer 250 billion won in a special support fund and redouble a fund to support neighborhood residents to find a new landfill site.
But none have not yet come forward, and any applicant may not be expected. If then, it will be a realistic alternative the money will be offered to neighborhood residents of the Sudokwon Landfill Site in return for using the remaining portion of the site or utilizing a fourth landfill site in the jurisdiction of Gyeonggi-do.
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