The '192,000-ton Garbage Mountain' in Uiseong-gun, a National Embarrassment, Will Completely Disappear This Month

The "Garbage Mountain" in Uiseong-gun, Gyeongbuk, is expected to be completely removed within this month, the county announced on the 2nd. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hana Na] The 'Garbage Mountain' in Uiseong-gun, Gyeongbuk, which brought international embarrassment after CNN in the United States extensively reported on South Korea's plastic usage and related issues, will be completely removed within this month.

On the 2nd, Uiseong-gun, Gyeongbuk announced, "We will remove all the garbage piles consisting of about 192,000 tons of waste within this first month of the new year."

According to a CNN report from March 2019, in a rural village in Danmil-myeon, Uiseong-gun, Gyeongbuk, there was a 'Garbage Mountain' towering over 15 meters high, piled with waste such as plastic, styrofoam, wires, vinyl, and scrap metal.

This garbage pile was created by the unauthorized dumping by the owner of company A, which operates a waste disposal business. From June 2016 to July 2018, they brought in waste materials amounting to 90 times the permitted amount (2,157 tons) from various regions including Seoul, Gyeonggi, Gyeongbuk, and Chungnam, and left them unattended on the business site.

In response, the county issued multiple administrative sanctions against the owner of company A and even revoked the intermediate recycling business permit for the site, but the waste remained piled up in place. According to Uiseong-gun officials, the company repeatedly appealed the sanctions, initiated administrative lawsuits, obtained suspension orders, and used that period to bring in more waste, increasing the amount of garbage left unattended.

The garbage piled on the approximately 40,000㎡ business site caused disruptions to the daily lives of nearby residents, and the pressure from the piled waste even caused a fire that took several days to extinguish.

Ultimately, Uiseong-gun began waste removal through administrative enforcement with the help of the Ministry of Environment, and a prosecution investigation into the owner of company A followed. The owners who illegally dumped the garbage were subject to judicial action.

Kwon Hyun-su, the environmental officer of Uiseong-gun, said, "Once the Garbage Mountain is cleared, we plan to create an 'Eco Green Experience Center' on the site," adding, "It will be used as a kind of educational site to ensure that a second or third Garbage Mountain is never created again."

Since June 2019, Uiseong-gun has been removing the garbage piles through administrative enforcement, investing about 24 billion won from national, provincial, and county funds. Currently, about 187,000 tons (97%) of the waste has been cleared.

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