Gyeongju City Prevents Household Waste Crisis... Smart Practices

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Gyeongju City, Gyeongbuk Province, is making various efforts such as significantly improving the collection system for efficient disposal of household waste and improving the compensation payment for agricultural waste.

The city has installed 'Village-level Household Waste Joint Collection Centers,' which are key collection facilities, in rural fishing villages and urban single-family housing areas where it is difficult to separate and dispose of waste.

The joint collection centers are 5.5m wide and 2.5m long, equipped with separate collection bins for 10 types of recyclables including household waste, plastics, cans, and bottles, and CCTV for monitoring illegal dumping.

Village-level Household Waste Collection Center in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk = Provided by Gyeongju City

The city completed installation at about 40 locations from May to the end of August and plans to add about 60 more locations by the end of the year. In addition, starting next month, a pilot installation of 'Small-scale Apartment Recycling Stations' will be conducted in urban areas where installing joint collection centers is difficult.

Dongcheon-dong, Seonggeon-dong, and Seondo-dong have been selected as pilot areas, and about 150 recycling stations (50 per area) will be installed by October.

The city is also actively addressing the collection of agricultural waste, a major concern in rural areas. Since March, the compensation for collecting agricultural waste has been increased, and the support system for rural waste vinyl collection, which has been divided between the Resource Circulation Division and the Agricultural Distribution Division, will be unified under the Resource Circulation Division starting next year.

From this month, the city has designated every Friday as 'Environmental Maintenance Day' to promote proper waste disposal methods in environmentally vulnerable areas and multi-use facilities. Additionally, 64 more mobile surveillance cameras will be installed by the end of this year to conduct regular monitoring activities.

Mayor Jun Nak-young of Gyeongju said, “Household waste issues are directly related to citizens’ health,” and added, “We will do our best to ensure that the comprehensive household waste management plan becomes a model case for other local governments.”

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