Seoul City, Feasibility Study for Site Candidates of a 1,000-Ton-Per-Day 'Metropolitan Resource Recovery Facility'

Targeting all of Seoul by August... Reliance on direct landfill due to insufficient treatment facility capacity
Comprehensive review of locational conditions, social and environmental factors to select optimal candidate sites

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 23rd, Seoul City announced that it will conduct a feasibility study for candidate sites for a metropolitan resource recovery facility with a capacity of 1,000 tons (t) per day across the entire city from this month until August, to establish a stable treatment system for municipal waste generated in Seoul.

The detailed contents of the feasibility study for candidate sites of the metropolitan resource recovery facility include ▲ locational conditions ▲ social conditions ▲ environmental conditions ▲ economic conditions ▲ review of resident support projects in the surrounding areas of the site.

The capacity of municipal waste treatment facilities is insufficient with only the four metropolitan resource recovery facilities in Seoul and the Eunpyeong Environmental Plant, a standalone resource recovery facility in Eunpyeong-gu, resulting in a significant amount of municipal waste relying on direct landfill. Seoul City landfilled 719 tons per day in 2015, 766 tons per day in 2016, 799 tons per day in 2017, 868 tons per day in 2018, and 969 tons per day in 2019 at the metropolitan landfill site.

Accordingly, as the need for new metropolitan resource recovery facilities arose, Seoul conducted two rounds of site selection contests for metropolitan resource recovery facilities from May to December 2019. However, no applications were received, so in December 2020, a site selection committee was formed to promote the construction of a metropolitan resource recovery facility with a capacity of 1,000 tons per day.

Since last year, Seoul City has been promoting the Seoul Public Deliberation Project through citizen participation and deliberation to seek desirable alternatives to anticipated public conflicts during the process of establishing the metropolitan resource recovery facility. This year, to secure policy and resident acceptance, the city plans to actively promote the second phase of the Seoul Public Deliberation Project to explore regional cooperation and coexistence measures.

The results of this survey will be transparently disclosed to citizens in September through daily newspapers, the city bulletin, and the city website, ensuring citizen participation by collecting opinions from local residents to decide the final site.

Jung Mi-seon, head of the Resource Circulation Division of Seoul City, said, “The construction of a metropolitan resource recovery facility is essential to achieve stable treatment of Seoul’s municipal waste and zero direct landfill in accordance with the principle of waste treatment at the source of generation.” She added, “Based on resident acceptance, we will promote the construction of the metropolitan resource recovery facility by preparing transparent procedures, resident cooperation and coexistence measures, and eco-friendly facility construction plans.”

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