Hwacheon-gun Faces 'Garbage Crisis'... Urgent Need for National Funding Support

Processing Facility Lifespan Exceeds 5 Years... Incineration Efficiency Drops Over 60%
Only 830 Million Won of the 2.077 Billion Won National Budget Request Reflected

New Incineration Facility (Under Construction) [Hwacheon-gun]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] As the lifespan of the household waste treatment facility in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon-do has been exceeded and the facility has aged, reaching its limit in waste processing capacity, the landfill's usage period is also at risk of being shortened due to the burial of waste that could not be incinerated.

Furthermore, the initially requested national subsidy has been cut to less than half, raising concerns over a potential waste crisis in Hwacheon-gun due to delays in the completion of the new facility.

According to Hwacheon-gun on the 9th, a household waste incineration facility was installed in Nonmi-ri, Hanam-myeon in 2002 and has been operating for about 20 years.

The facility's durability period was until 2017, which has already been exceeded by more than five years. Originally, it had an incineration capacity of 30 tons per day, but due to aging, the current daily incineration volume has decreased by more than 60%, remaining around 20 tons.

Due to the reduced incineration capacity, the leftover waste is being directly landfilled. Moreover, recently, the amount of waste brought in from local military units has also increased.

At this rate, the usage period of Hwacheon-gun's household waste landfill is expected to be brought forward by at least three years from the originally anticipated 2028.

The amount of household waste landfilled in Hwacheon has shown a steep increase: 9,774 tons in 2017, 13,332 tons in 2018, 11,458 tons in 2019, and 13,244 tons in 2020.

In the worst case, it may become difficult to process household waste generated by local military units.

To prepare for this situation, Hwacheon-gun entrusted the Korea Environment Corporation with the project to install a new incineration facility at the end of the existing facility's lifespan in 2017.

Subsequently, in October last year, after completing the design service, construction began on a new incineration facility with a daily processing capacity of 40 tons on land adjacent to the current facility.

However, with the national subsidy for next year reduced from the initial expectation, the completion of the project is likely to be delayed.

Hwacheon-gun initially requested 2.077 billion KRW in national subsidies, but the actual budget reflected is only 830 million KRW, less than half of the requested amount.

If the new incineration facility installation project proceeds as planned, 50% of the total process should be completed next year, so additional national subsidy support next year is urgently needed to normalize the project.

Choi Moon-soon, the mayor of Hwacheon-gun, emphasized, "If the installation of the new incineration facility is further delayed, a waste crisis will be inevitable not only for residents but also for the military units in the area," and added, "The government's special attention and support are necessary."

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