Incheon City Launches Public Deliberation Committee for 'Self Landfill Site Creation'... Optimal Plan to be Derived Around April

Incheon City is holding the first meeting of the Public Deliberation Promotion Committee for the 'Transition of Waste Management Policy and Creation of a Self-Landfill Site.' 2020.1.6 [Photo by Incheon City]

On the 6th, Park Namchun, Mayor of Incheon City, delivered a greeting at the 'Public Deliberation Promotion Committee Member Appointment Ceremony' held in the video conference room.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City has set a policy to terminate the use of the current Seo-gu metropolitan landfill site by 2025 and to create its own landfill site. To promote this, the city will actively engage in public deliberation by gathering opinions from the local community.

The city recently announced on the 8th that it has formed a Public Deliberation Promotion Committee and has begun implementing the 'Transition to Eco-friendly Waste Management Policy and Public Deliberation on Creating Its Own Landfill Site.'

The appointed members of the Public Deliberation Promotion Committee include ▲2 legal experts (lawyers Lee Chi-won and Kim Tae-min) ▲2 research experts (Professors Kim Young-soon and Lee Soo-beom) ▲2 deliberation experts (Kim Hak-rin, Vice Chair of the Public Deliberation Committee, and Kim Mi-kyung, Committee Member) ▲3 communication experts (Park Sang-moon, Co-representative of the Regional Culture Network; Park Ok-hee, Secretary General of the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements; and Shin Bong-hoon, Incheon City Communication Cooperation Officer), totaling 9 members. Park Sang-moon was elected as the chairperson of the Public Deliberation Promotion Committee.

The transition of waste management policy and the public deliberation on creating its own landfill site will be conducted through mutual consultation among the Promotion Committee, the public deliberation agency, and the supporting departments.

The public deliberation agency is entrusted to Embrain Public and the Korea Center for Social Conflict Resolution. This month, they will conduct a perception survey on the transition to eco-friendly waste management policy and the creation of its own landfill site targeting 3,000 citizens.

Following this, a citizen participation group (at least 253 members) and a youth participation group (at least 50 members) will be formed to carry out the public deliberation process, including citizen forums. The Promotion Committee will analyze the results of the citizen perception survey and public debates and submit policy recommendations to the city by the end of April.

Mayor Park Nam-chun, while presenting appointment letters to the public deliberation promotion committee members on the 6th, requested, "Please prepare the best possible plan that citizens can be satisfied with and accept regarding waste management policy and the creation of its own landfill site through a transparent and fair public deliberation process centered on citizens."

Incheon City is the first metropolitan local government to institutionalize a Public Deliberation Committee, which is a body that decides whether to proceed with public deliberation on public conflict issues arising from policy agendas.

Meanwhile, Incheon City began a research project last September to create its own landfill site exclusively for Incheon’s waste.

Through this research project, the city plans to establish a roadmap and select candidate sites for its own landfill, devise measures to minimize conflicts with local residents, and develop strategies to achieve zero direct landfill of household waste.

It is estimated that if only incineration ash is landfilled by achieving zero direct landfill of household waste, an alternative landfill site of approximately 140,000 square meters will be required. The city plans to complete the research project by August this year and finalize the site selection by the end of the year.

Incheon City is putting great effort into creating its own landfill site because the metropolitan alternative landfill project, which would process waste from Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi together, has made no progress.

In June 2015, the Ministry of Environment and the three metropolitan cities and provinces (a four-party consultative body) agreed that Seoul City and the Ministry of Environment would transfer ownership of the metropolitan landfill site land to Incheon City. In return, the landfill usage period, originally set to end in late 2016, was extended until the completion of landfill in Section 3-1 (1.03 million square meters), which is about 10 years. They also agreed to secure an alternative landfill site during this period, and if not possible, to use an additional 15% of the remaining site (Section 3-2, 1.06 million square meters).

However, the Ministry of Environment and the three metropolitan cities and provinces have not reached consensus on the subject responsible for the alternative landfill site recruitment and creation, nor on the incentive sharing plan.

Accordingly, Incheon City views that if more time is wasted, it is highly likely to be forced to use Section 3-2 additionally. Therefore, alongside the joint alternative landfill site project agreed upon by the four parties, Incheon is pursuing a two-track strategy to create its own landfill site independently.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.