▲ Suwon Resource Recovery Facility
Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, which is simultaneously pursuing the relocation and remodeling (major overhaul) of its resource recovery facility (incinerator), is grappling with a double burden regarding the incinerator.
This is because years after announcing the relocation plan, the city has failed to select a new candidate site, fueling growing backlash from residents, while the aging incinerator's overhaul will make it impossible to process waste independently starting as early as January next year.
Suwon is currently holding an open recruitment for candidate sites for a new facility to replace the resource recovery facility near Yeongheung Park in Yeongtong-gu, running from the 7th through December 6.
The existing incinerator, consisting of two 300-ton capacity incineration units, was established in April 2000 and has processed up to 600 tons of waste generated across Suwon daily.
As the incinerator exceeded its 15-year lifespan, the city announced a relocation and new construction plan, searching for candidate sites through research studies.
Although the city held a candidate site application process targeting citizens in 2023, the number of applications was zero.
To secure fairness and objectivity, Suwon decided to form a committee of experts to deduce a relocation site instead of having the city select one, and planned to announce the results in August of this year, but postponed it after concluding that a more cautious procedure was necessary.
Considering the aging incinerator and resident backlash over delayed relocation plans, the city judged that it could no longer postpone the site selection process and decided to hold one final public application period before announcing the candidate site selected through the study.
A city official explained, "We are holding the application process once more to guarantee fairness and minimize resident backlash," adding, "If there are no applications in this round either, we plan to announce one candidate site selected through the study."
However, even if a candidate site is announced next year as scheduled, it could take anywhere from 7 to 8 months to several years to form the "Site Selection Committee" that decides the final location and go through the opinion-gathering process, leaving it uncertain when the relocation project can be pursued in earnest.
For this reason, separate from the relocation project, the city will begin major overhaul construction to completely replace the two incineration units of the current incinerator between January and February next year.
Incinerators typically undergo regular inspections once a year. However, in Suwon's case, because the incinerators are old and prone to breakdowns, it has affected operation frequency and waste processing capacity, making repairs unavoidable.
The problem is that with the suspension of incinerator operations during the repair period, the city will not be able to perform independent incineration for the next two years.
The city has formed a task force and is consulting with related organizations such as Incheon, the Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corporation, and the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, requesting exceptional permission for direct landfilling at the Sudokwon Landfill Site (Incheon) and an increase in the permitted total volume, but the outlook is not entirely bright.
The exceptional direct landfill allowance allocated to Gyeonggi Province this year is 45,415 tons annually, while the amount of household waste discharged from Suwon in a year is approximately 135,000 tons, which is triple that amount.
Even if Incheon and related organizations, which adhere to the metropolitan area direct landfill ban principle enforced starting this year, are persuaded and landfilling of Suwon's waste is permitted during the remodeling construction period, the direct landfill volume permitted this year alone is at a level that cannot handle Suwon's waste.
Accordingly, the city is also reviewing plans to outsource waste incineration to the private sector, though waste treatment costs are expected to be substantial.
The incineration treatment costs identified by Gyeonggi Province early this year for 13 cities and counties utilizing private incineration facilities ranged from 110,000 to 210,000 won per ton (including transportation costs), which was up to about 40% more expensive compared to the Sudokwon Landfill processing unit price (116,000 won per ton excluding transportation costs).
A city official explained, "Because household waste treatment is a core public service in citizens' daily lives, relying entirely on private outsourcing carries the risk of increased instability," and added, "We will make efforts to ensure that waste is processed stably through consultations with related agencies including Incheon."
(Photo: Provided by Suwon City, Provided by Incheon Branch of Korea Photojournalists Association, Yonhap News)
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