Changwon City, First Nationwide to Recover Disposal Revenue from Household Waste Collection Vehicles

Establishing Grounds for Voluntary Recovery Through Agreement Between Changwon City and Companies

Photo of a Changwon City garbage truck.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Saeyan] Changwon City, Gyeongnam Province, has decided to recover the proceeds from the disposal (sale) of waste collection and transportation cleaning vehicles starting April 1.

On the 15th, the city discussed whether to recover the disposal proceeds at a meeting with representatives of 14 waste collection and transportation agencies. Subsequently, on the 25th, a final agreement was reached with the agencies to return the disposal proceeds to the city.

The city supported the purchase cost of cleaning vehicles as depreciation expenses over a service life of 6 years. After the service life expired, if the vehicles were sold or scrapped, the disposal proceeds (4 million to 5 million KRW per vehicle) were treated as agency profits.

This was a matter applied by all local governments due to the absence of recovery regulations.

Through this agreement, the city decided to recover disposal proceeds from vehicles purchased in 2016 onward, while exempting vehicles with a service life of 11 years or more from recovery.

The city has supported 100% of the cleaning vehicle depreciation expenses since 2018, and before that, partially or fully supported within budget limits.

Data on vehicles purchased before 2016 were discarded due to the statute of limitations (5 years), so the policy applies from 2016 vehicles onward. Currently, there are 110 vehicles purchased since 2016.

Cleaning vehicles collect waste daily from roads and residential areas, resulting in higher mileage than their model year and relatively high repair costs.

Additionally, unlike regular vehicles, leachate from garbage accelerates gutter corrosion, leading to a higher replacement frequency around the 7th to 8th year.

Therefore, to minimize budget waste caused by frequent vehicle replacements, the city decided to exclude disposal proceeds from vehicles older than 11 years from recovery.

The city hopes that the contents of this agreement will be used as basic data when the Ministry of Environment establishes recovery regulations in the future.

Kim Dongju, Head of the Resource Circulation Division, said, "Before the Ministry of Environment's directive, Changwon City proactively decided to recover proceeds from cleaning vehicle disposals," adding, "We will do our best to prevent budget waste."

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