"Additional Construction of Nanjido Waste Incineration Plant Not Needed for Processing"... Mapo-gu's Final Appeal to Seoul City

On the 24th, final proposal for a reasonable waste solution without incinerator construction announced at a press conference... Despite 1 year and 5 months of alternative efforts by Mapo-gu, regret over Seoul City's lack of communication and procedural transparency... Park Gang-su, Mapo-gu Mayor, "No more repeated sacrifices by Mapo-gu alone... Seoul City must now decide to withdraw"

Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo District, emphasized on the afternoon of the 23rd, “By 2026, when direct landfill of waste will be banned, analysis of data from the Ministry of Environment shows that an average of 744 tons of incineration per day will be required, which is an amount that can be sufficiently handled through facility improvements at the four incineration plants currently operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.”

According to an investigation by Mapo District, the current overall operating rate, including the incineration plants in Mapo, Gangnam, Yangcheon, and Nowon, is 79.82%, resulting in an average daily incineration of 2,275 tons. The Seoul Metropolitan Government stated that the low operating rate is due to recent changes in the characteristics of waste, but also noted that by upgrading facilities to match the current waste characteristics, an additional 575 tons of incineration per day would be possible at the four incineration plants.

At 3 p.m. that day, Mayor Park held a press conference at the district office to deliver Mapo District’s final policy proposal to Seoul regarding the additional installation of waste incineration plants in Mapo.

This was the sixth press conference held by Mapo District since the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced in August 2022 that Sangam-dong in Mapo District was a candidate site for a new 1,000-ton incineration plant. In front of the press conference venue, a petition opposing the incineration plant, signed by approximately 57,000 Mapo residents and workers in Mapo, was also prepared.

Following the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s official announcement of the incineration plant decision, Mapo District raised issues regarding the unfairness of the additional incineration plant installation process and soil contamination problems threatening the health of Mapo residents. The district also repeatedly demanded expansion of pre-treatment and recycling facilities, improvement plans for the current resource recovery facilities, and efforts to manage waste through realistic pricing of volume-based waste bags.

Despite Mapo District’s reasonable alternative proposals and strong opposition from its residents, the district expressed regret that over the past one year and five months, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has consistently engaged in non-communicative administration without sincere opinion gathering or verification procedures.

In the press release, Mayor Park Gang-su stated, “Mapo District is not Seoul’s waste site, and we can no longer tolerate the repeated sacrifices of Mapo residents alone.” He added, “There are 15 autonomous districts in Seoul without any waste disposal-related nuisance facilities, so we cannot accept Seoul’s claim that Mapo District, which already has a 750-ton incineration plant and a combined heat and power plant among many nuisance facilities, is the most suitable area for additional incineration plant installation.”

In fact, according to Seoul’s incineration plant site selection scoring table, the planned incineration plant site in Sangam-dong scores the highest because it is owned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and is currently operated as an incineration plant.

Under this current selection method, Mapo District continues to meet the conditions for having more nuisance facilities like incineration plants built in the future. This is interpreted as Seoul selecting the most convenient location procedurally, completely disregarding regional equity and residents’ sentiments.

This is consistent with the case of Nanji Island, where landfill began in 1978 and continued for eight years until 1993 despite exceeding landfill capacity in 1985, simply because Seoul could not find another suitable site.

At the press conference, Mapo District presented a fundamental and definite waste disposal alternative to Seoul, not opposition for the sake of opposition.

Mayor Park Gang-su emphasized, “By 2026, when direct landfill of waste will be banned, analysis of data from the Ministry of Environment shows that an average of 744 tons of incineration per day will be required, which is an amount that can be sufficiently handled through facility improvements at the four incineration plants currently operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.”

According to Mapo District’s investigation, the current overall operating rate, including the incineration plants in Mapo, Gangnam, Yangcheon, and Nowon, is 79.82%, resulting in an average daily incineration of 2,275 tons. The Seoul Metropolitan Government stated that the low operating rate is due to recent changes in the characteristics of waste, but by upgrading facilities to match the current waste characteristics, an additional 575 tons of incineration per day would be possible at the four incineration plants.

Ultimately, although Seoul will need to incinerate only 169 tons of waste in 2026, the plan to spend 1.28 trillion won to build an additional 1,000-ton incineration plant would cause serious budget waste.

In response, Mayor Park Gang-su said, “169 tons is an amount that 9.38 million Seoul citizens can reduce by just 18 grams of waste each per day.” He added, “Moreover, if thorough waste separation, coffee grounds recycling, prohibition of food waste mixed in volume-based waste bags, and self-treatment of business and household waste are implemented, the issue can be sufficiently resolved and more.”

Mapo District plans to continue demonstrating the empirical effects of its waste environment policies through expanding the ‘Zero Incineration Store’ program, which can increase recycling rates through price compensation, coffee grounds recycling projects, and crackdowns on mixed waste disposal.

Mayor Park Gang-su appealed, “I hope Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Seoul officials will carefully consider the sincere pleas of 370,000 Mapo residents and Mapo public officials and make a courageous decision to withdraw the additional incineration plant construction.”

On this day, Mayor Park sent this final message to Seoul. It appears that the ball is now in Seoul’s court, and he reiterated that he does not care what decision Mayor Oh Se-hoon makes.

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