"Create a Landfill Site in Incheon"…Public Deliberation Committee Recommends to Incheon City

6-Month Deliberation by Citizen Participation Group Leads to Recommendation
Proposal to Modernize Existing Metropolitan Waste Treatment Facilities
Seogu Residents' Group Claims "Error in Waste Facility Public Opinion Survey"

Incheon Mayor Park Nam-chun received a policy recommendation document related to the "Transition to Eco-friendly Waste Management Policy and Creation of a Self-landfill Site" from Won Hye-wook, Chairman of the Incheon Public Deliberation Committee, on the 29th.
[Photo by Incheon City]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] The Incheon Public Deliberation Committee has recommended creating an independent landfill site in Incheon in relation to the planned cessation of the use of the metropolitan landfill site in 2025. It also suggested modernizing the existing metropolitan waste treatment facilities and installing new facilities in areas where capacity is insufficient.

The committee delivered a policy recommendation containing these details to the Incheon city government on the 29th.

In the recommendation, the committee stated, "An independent landfill site exclusive to Incheon should be established. The candidate sites should be selected based on objective service results, followed by the formation of a site selection committee and feasibility studies. The safety of surrounding residents and the impact on environmental damage should be considered as the highest priority."

Regarding waste treatment facilities in the Incheon area, the committee recommended, "Based on legal and scientific service results, existing metropolitan facilities should be modernized, and new metropolitan facilities should be installed in regions where capacity is lacking."

Furthermore, the committee advised establishing a resident monitoring system in the areas of waste treatment facilities and the independent landfill site to ensure environmental pollution prevention measures, transparency in facility operations, and to prioritize support for job creation and regional economic revitalization as compensation for residents.

Additionally, it suggested preparing institutional measures to improve the household waste system and ensure compliance with regulations, as well as exploring ways to landfill only incineration ash at the independent landfill site.

Incheon’s Public Deliberation Committee, the first among metropolitan local governments to institutionalize such a body, is an organization that decides whether to promote public deliberation on public conflict issues arising from policy matters.

Composed of professors, lawyers, and experts, the committee set its first agenda as "Transition to an eco-friendly waste management policy and establishment of an independent landfill site." From January this year until this month, it conducted a public deliberation process with a citizen participation group and finalized the recommendation document.

After receiving the policy recommendation, Park Namchun, Mayor of Incheon, expressed gratitude, saying, "I thank the steering committee and the 368 citizen participants who took part in the deliberation process," and added, "We will carefully ensure that the recommendations are reflected as much as possible in related services."

However, regarding the committee’s recommendation on this day, a residents’ group from Seo-gu, where the current metropolitan landfill site is located, claimed there were serious errors in the public opinion survey on metropolitan waste treatment facilities and demanded a public debate with the mayor in attendance.

The Cheongna International City General Association stated in a position paper, "Manipulative techniques that lead to specific answers were used in the public opinion survey cited by the Public Deliberation Committee as evidence," and argued, "Although 72.7% of Incheon citizens and 61.5% of Seo-gu residents supported modernizing the existing incineration plant, the survey is invalid because it does not reflect the proportion of Cheongna residents who are actually suffering from the effects of the incineration plant’s influence."

According to a previous survey result released by the Public Deliberation Steering Committee regarding the method of modernizing the incineration facility, 72.2% of respondents preferred the "modernization of the currently operating incineration facility," while 20.7% favored "closing the current incineration facility and relocating it to a third area."

In particular, among Seo-gu residents (537 respondents) where the Cheongna incineration plant is located, 61.5% agreed that "modernizing the currently operating incineration facility" is appropriate, while only 33.3% requested relocation.

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