Jongno-gu Selected as the Best Autonomous District in Seoul for 2020 Total Volume Control of Household Waste Import

Evaluation of Compliance Rate for Waste Inflow Against Total Volume in Local Governments Receiving Household Waste from January to October 2020... Efforts to Comply with Total Inflow Quota at Sudogwon Landfill Site Bear Fruit This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Jongno-gu (District Mayor Kim Young-jong) achieved the best performance among the 25 autonomous districts of Seoul in the ‘2020 Living Waste Import Quota Compliance Excellent Local Government’ evaluation conducted by the Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corporation.

This import quota evaluation was selected by comparing the compliance rate of imports against the total amount of living waste. As a result, Pyeongtaek-si and Siheung-si in Gyeonggi-do ranked first and second respectively, and Jongno-gu ranked third among a total of 64 local governments including Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, receiving the highest evaluation among Seoul’s autonomous districts.

Jongno-gu has been implementing various policies to stably process living waste, reduce the financial burden on the district, and increase the resource recycling rate.

As part of this, the disposal of waste from the sewing industry, which is considered a representative local industry, can be mentioned.

In December 2018, the district newly secured a private facility for the stable disposal of sewing fabric waste. This was because the burden of waste disposal, which had been inevitably imported to public facilities due to the suspension of imports to existing facilities, had increased.

Accordingly, by comparing the processing capacity and cost of sewing fabric processing facilities and discovering and selecting a company that can process waste stably and environmentally friendly at a relatively low price, the district achieved budget savings.

Moreover, in December last year, Jongno-gu implemented Seoul’s first separate collection and recycling policy for ‘glass bottles’ among mixed recyclables. This aims to contribute to resource saving and environmental preservation to realize a resource-circulating city.

The annual amount of recyclables discharged in Jongno-gu is about 10,000 tons, of which glass bottles account for about 15%, meaning about 1,500 tons of glass bottles are discharged annually.

Additionally, due to the recycling processing cost doubling in 2019 compared to 2017 based on the Seongdong-gu Resource Recovery Center import standard, the district promoted separate collection and recycling of glass bottles.

The district is minimizing the mixing of other recyclables by separating glass bottles from the discharge stage throughout the entire region. Businesses that discharge large amounts of glass bottles are guided and encouraged to separate only glass bottles for disposal. Collected glass bottles are transported to specialized companies for recycling, reducing costs. When collected glass bottles are transported by district-operated cleaning vehicles to recycling companies, the companies sort them by color and reuse them to manufacture glass bottles or use them as building materials.

During November and December this year, efforts will be made to process fallen leaves in autumn. Fallen leaves generated from parks, cultural assets, and main roads are recycled as farm compost, reducing costs and providing residents with a pleasant street environment.

District Mayor Kim Young-jong said, “I am very pleased that our efforts for waste disposal have borne fruit with the selection as an excellent local government,” and added, “We ask for the residents’ great interest and cooperation in various waste policies to create a resource-circulating city, Jongno.”

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