75% of Incheon Citizens Support "Establishing Own Landfill Site"...Backing 2025 Landfill Closure

Incheon Public Deliberation Committee Releases Citizen Awareness Survey Results
72.2% Agree on 'Modernization of Operating Incineration Facilities'

Park Sang-moon, Chairman of the Incheon Public Deliberation Promotion Committee, is holding a press conference on the 12th regarding the promotion of 'Transition to Eco-friendly Waste Management Policy and Public Deliberation on the Establishment of a Self-landfill Site.'
[Photo by Incheon City]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] It has been revealed that 75% of Incheon citizens support the plan to establish an independent landfill site in Incheon, strengthening the city’s push to end the use of the metropolitan landfill site by 2025.

According to the Incheon Public Deliberation Promotion Committee on the 13th, a citizen perception survey related to the first public deliberation agenda of Incheon, "Transition to Eco-friendly Waste Management Policy and Public Deliberation on Establishing an Independent Landfill," showed that 75.2% of respondents agreed with creating an independent landfill site that processes only Incheon’s waste separately.

Regarding the types of compensation needed for residents in the areas where the independent landfill and waste treatment facilities are located, the responses were ranked as follows: "Job support and regional economic revitalization" at 28.2%, "Infrastructure development such as roads and parks" at 19.7%, "Installation of resident convenience facilities such as cultural and sports facilities" at 18.7%, and "Cash support for local residents" at 16.7%.

The survey was conducted from April 6 to 21 with 3,000 citizens. It was analyzed that respondents sympathized with Incheon’s policy to end the use of the metropolitan landfill site in Baekseok-dong, Seo-gu by 2025 and to establish an independent landfill site in Incheon.

Incheon City declared the end of metropolitan landfill site use after completing Section 3-1 in 2025 and is urging a four-party agreement with the Ministry of Environment and the three metropolitan cities and provinces, while promoting the establishment of an eco-friendly independent landfill site unique to Incheon.

The four-party consultative body agreed in June 2015 that Seoul City and the Ministry of Environment would transfer land ownership of the metropolitan landfill site to Incheon City, and in return, the landfill use period, originally set to end in late 2016, would be extended until the completion of landfill in Section 3-1 (1.03 million square meters), approximately 10 years later. They also agreed to secure an alternative landfill site during this period, and if not possible, to additionally use 15% of the remaining area (Section 3-2, 1.06 million square meters).

However, as Seoul and Gyeonggi showed a lukewarm response to establishing an alternative landfill site, Incheon City is concerned that if an alternative landfill site is not established, the current metropolitan landfill site could effectively be used permanently. Therefore, Incheon plans to pressure Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to agree to end the current metropolitan landfill site by promoting the establishment of an independent landfill site and the construction of an incineration plant.

Incheon City estimated that if direct landfill of household waste is zeroed out and only incineration ash is landfilled, an alternative landfill site of about 140,000 square meters would be needed. The city plans to select candidate sites through a research project for establishing an independent landfill site and develop strategies to minimize conflicts with local residents and to achieve zero direct landfill of household waste.

Meanwhile, in a survey by the Public Deliberation Promotion Committee on the method of modernizing incineration facilities, 72.2% of respondents preferred "modernizing the currently operating incineration facilities," while 20.7% favored "closing the currently operating incineration facilities and relocating them to a third area."

Specifically, among residents of Seo-gu, where the Cheongna incineration plant is located (537 respondents), 61.5% agreed that "modernizing the currently operating incineration facilities" is appropriate, while only 33.3% requested relocation. Among residents of Yeonsu-gu, where the Songdo incineration plant is located (361 respondents), 77.8% agreed with modernization, and only 16.6% requested relocation.

The Public Deliberation Promotion Committee will submit the results of this public opinion survey and the report on the citizen grand deliberation forums held on April 4-5 and 11 to the Incheon Public Deliberation Committee. Based on this, the committee will prepare a final policy recommendation and submit it to Mayor Park Namchun of Incheon within this month.

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

Mayor Park Namchun stated, "Public deliberation is the true principle," and added, "The final recommendation of the Public Deliberation Committee will be reflected in the establishment of eco-friendly waste management policies."

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