[Inside Chodong] Cement Industry Steps Up as Solution to the Waste Crisis

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jonghwa] Although mask-wearing remains common, the near disappearance of social distancing makes the changed atmosphere palpable. Commercial districts are bustling with groups gathering late into the night to eat and drink, and crowds heading outdoors after being restrained cause traffic jams everywhere. True to the Korean people's reputation for speed, the pace and depth of changes brought by the pandemic and its aftermath are tremendous.

COVID-19 has changed many things, but one of the biggest changes felt in daily life is 'delivery' and 'takeout.' I recall my wife, who stayed in Shanghai, China for studies during the first half of 2017, shaking her head as she recounted the risky and chaotic scenes of motorcycles and heaps of trash, saying, "In the morning, people would order a bowl of fried noodles or a hamburger set for delivery." But now, this is no longer someone else's story.

Although there is a social atmosphere promoting eco-friendly awareness and strengthening regulations on disposable products, I am deeply worried whether the situation is truly controlled at this level and whether our descendants will have a livable Earth to stand on and breathe.

In particular, the waste problem is an immediate issue. According to the Ministry of Environment and the Korea Environment Corporation, as of the end of 2020, the amount of waste generated domestically was about 195 million tons. Household waste increased due to COVID-19, and business waste (about 20 million tons) and construction waste (about 10 million tons) also rose sharply. However, finding solutions is like climbing one mountain after another.

The Sudokwon Landfill Site in Seo-gu, Incheon, which disposes of waste from Seoul and the metropolitan area, will close in 2025, and from 2026, only ash remaining after incineration can be sorted and landfilled. Without securing an alternative landfill site, building incineration plants is also difficult. Nationwide, attempts to build incineration and post-incineration landfill facilities have faced fierce public opposition, and even the Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corporation (SL Corporation) faced resistance when trying to build an incineration facility within the landfill site. Now, the time is near when we must choose between building an incineration plant and landfill in each local municipality nationwide or piling up garbage in front of our homes.

In this situation, the cement industry has proposed a solution to the waste crisis. It involves replacing the auxiliary raw materials and fuels, which account for 12% of cement production raw materials excluding limestone (which accounts for 88%), with waste materials.

Instead of clay, which accounts for 7% of raw materials, industrial wastes such as coal ash from thermal power plants and steel mills, and sludge (oni) from sewage systems are used. Quartz can also be replaced with waste foundry sand used as molds in foundries. According to the industry, 6.8 million tons of coal ash, sludge, and waste foundry sand were recycled last year. Household waste plastics and vinyl, etc., are used as alternative fuels to bituminous coal, which is used to melt these raw materials. The cement industry used 2.24 million tons of combustible waste such as waste plastics as auxiliary fuel last year.

Last year's waste recycling volume by cement manufacturers was 9.047 million tons, three times the annual intake of 3 million tons at the metropolitan landfill site. It increased from 8.09 million tons in 2019 and 8.08 million tons in 2020 to 9.05 million tons last year.

This itself seems a considerable achievement, but it still falls short of advanced levels. The recycling rate of circular resources in the Korean cement industry is 23%, while Germany, the world leader in the cement industry, has a recycling rate of 68%, and the European Union (EU) currently stands at 46%, aiming to reach 65% by 2035. Increasing circular resource recycling in the domestic cement industry will help solve the waste crisis and reduce dependence on imported resources like bituminous coal, so expectations for the industry's efforts are high.

In the changed world after COVID-19, the waste problem has become a bigger challenge, but the message of the movie Interstellar remains as valid as ever. We will find the answer, as we always have.

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