Pohang City Transforms Food Waste into Eco-Friendly Bioenergy!

Announcement of Evaluation Results for Location Feasibility Study Services Including General and Social Conditions

Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment on Environmental Factors, Final Location Selection Around December

The Site Selection Committee for the Food Waste Treatment Facility in Pohang City held its 6th meeting on August 29th and announced the results of the site feasibility study for the four locations submitted for the food waste biogas facility site competition.

Pohang City Transforms Food Waste into Eco-Friendly Bioenergy!

The site selection committee, consisting of a total of 13 members including residents near the candidate sites and experts, announced the priority order of candidate sites as Heunghan-ri, Heunghae-eup; Sangdae-ri, Cheongha-myeon; Jecheol-dong (Jangheung-dong); and Balsan-ri, Donghae-myeon during the meeting.

Before deciding the priority, the site selection committee commissioned a professional agency in March to conduct a site feasibility study. Reflecting cases from other cities and counties, opinions from the site selection committee, and field inspections, they established five criteria categories (general conditions, social conditions, environmental conditions, technical conditions, economic conditions) and 33 detailed evaluation items. Based on these, they conducted evaluations to determine the priority order of the candidate sites.

The site selection committee plans to complete the site feasibility study by September, disclose the results to local residents, hold a residents’ briefing session to gather their opinions, and simultaneously conduct a strategic environmental impact assessment to preemptively review the environmental impact caused by the installation of the food waste treatment facility.

The strategic environmental impact assessment prioritizes reviewing the environmental effects of the facility installation. It is conducted before the final site decision, reflecting local residents’ opinions to thoroughly examine environmental risk factors and seek alternatives.

Once all these procedures are completed, the site selection committee intends to comprehensively consider the site feasibility study results, strategic environmental impact assessment results, and residents’ opinions to decide and announce the final site among the four candidates.

Gowonhak, Director of the Pohang City Environment Bureau, stated, “The food waste biogas facility will be designed with meticulous review and cutting-edge technology from the design stage to ensure no harm to residents.” He added, “In the areas where the facility is installed, support stipulated by relevant laws (up to 25.6 billion KRW) and separate support to resolve residents’ pending projects will be implemented. We will do our best to make the installation of the food waste biogas facility a turning point for regional development and a model case for attracting environmental infrastructure.”

Pohang City currently pays 12 billion KRW annually to private companies in Cheongju and Asan to outsource the treatment of 159 tons of food waste generated daily. It is expected that having its own facility will reduce the budget by about 30% annually.

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