Seoul City Intensifies Crackdown on Businesses Illegally Disposing of Household Waste

Subjects Emitting Over 300kg per Day

Seoul City announced on the 11th that it will conduct intensive inspections of business sites that generate large amounts of waste, such as large buildings, to reduce household waste and prevent mixed disposal, thereby expanding recycling.

Business sites that generate large amounts of household waste are those that produce 300 kg or more per day of food waste, recyclable waste such as vinyl and PET, and volume-based waste.

According to the current Waste Management Act, business sites that generate 300 kg or more of household waste per day must submit a waste report to the local district office and either handle the waste themselves or outsource its disposal. Failure to report can result in a fine of up to 10 million KRW, and failure to handle the waste personally or violations of outsourcing disposal can lead to imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to 30 million KRW.

The city, together with each district office, will visit about 1,200 large waste-generating business sites from mid-month to guide them on prior household waste reporting. After about a one-month grace period, joint intensive inspections will begin in mid-October with the Civil Affairs Judicial Police Unit.

When determining whether a business site is subject to this regulation, food waste and recyclable waste should be included in the calculation of household waste. However, care must be taken not to misunderstand that only general household waste exceeding 300 kg per day is subject to reporting, which could lead to non-reporting.

The city expects that discovering about 1,000 new business sites could reduce household waste by 100,000 tons annually.

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