Building Parking Lot and Logistics Warehouse on Landfill Site

Government Unveils Advanced Management Plan for Waste Landfill Sites
More Park Golf Courses and Arboretums to Be Built on Landfills

The government will allow various facilities such as parking lots and logistics warehouses to be built on top of landfill sites. This is to use landfill sites, which are 3.5 times the size of Yeouido in Seoul, for residents' leisure or industrial infrastructure.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Environment announced the "Advanced Management Plan for Waste Landfill Facilities" at the National Policy Meeting of Related Ministers and Economic Ministers held at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The plan includes utilizing land where waste landfill has been completed. The total area of landfill sites that have ceased operation is 10.04 million square meters, of which 74% is left unused. The government's idea is to ease regulations and provide incentives to increase the utilization rate of these vacant lands.

To this end, construction of parking lots, open storage yards, logistics facilities, and waste treatment facilities will be permitted on landfill sites. Until now, only parks, sports facilities, and cultural facilities were allowed. Common approval standards for land use will also be established. Local governments have complained that even if they want to build on landfill sites, there are no standards, making it difficult to issue permits. The Ministry of Environment expects that with these standards, facilities preferred by residents such as park golf courses and arboretums will also increase.

Gyeonggi-do Suwon City Resource Circulation Center. Photo is unrelated to the article content. Photo by Yonhap News.

Landfills owned by power generation companies will be supported for use as industrial conversion sites. For example, if a liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant is newly built on a coal-fired power plant landfill, convenience will be provided. First, the "covering" process of covering the landfill with soil will be exempted, as there is almost no concern about environmental pollution. Eliminating the covering process can save the five major power companies approximately 370 billion won. Additionally, landfills with no environmental or safety issues will be excluded from post-management targets.

Damage caused by the bankruptcy of landfill operators will also be prevented. When companies operating landfill sites go bankrupt, the national and local governments have borne significant costs, spending hundreds of billions of won in taxes solely on restoration. In some areas, operators have even fled. Going forward, the system will be changed so that companies operating landfill sites must pay the entire deposit in cash. The deposit amount will be increased to ensure it is sufficient. If bankruptcy or abandonment incidents occur, the industry will be encouraged to take responsibility by establishing a mutual aid association.

The minimum installation standards for landfills, maintained since 1987, will be revised to reflect current realities. Currently, a landfill must be at least 3,300 square meters in area, but the average size of newly built landfills is about 40,000 square meters, rendering the regulation ineffective. The Ministry of Environment plans to raise the standards considering landfill size, profit and loss structure, and bankruptcy risk.

Additionally, the use of alternative covering materials instead of soil when covering landfill sites has been permitted. Using substitutes such as synthetic rubber is known to speed up work and reduce odors by about three times.

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