No Place to Go, Sent to Incheon: Equivalent of 2,500 Trucks of Garbage Dumped

[Anchor]

The direct landfilling of household waste was legally banned in the Seoul metropolitan area starting this year. However, due to a shortage of incineration facilities and sites requiring maintenance, the government exceptionally permitted direct landfilling. As a result, it has been confirmed that 50,000 tons of garbage generated in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province this year were buried in Incheon. The fundamental solution—expanding public incineration plants—remains sluggish.

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has the exclusive report.

[Reporter]

A household waste landfill site in Geomdan-gu, Incheon.

Lineups of trucks are dumping standard garbage bags.

Behind me, standard garbage bags can be seen piled up everywhere.

An average of about 8,500 tons of household waste from around the metropolitan area flows into this landfill every month.

This waste came from places outside of Incheon, such as Seongbuk-gu in Seoul and Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province.

Under the revised Wastes Control Act, direct landfilling of household waste in the metropolitan area was banned starting last January.

However, as metropolitan garbage was transported as far as South Chungcheong Province and Gangwon Province due to a shortage of public incineration facilities, sparking regional conflicts, the government permitted exceptional direct landfilling last March.

Thanks to this, 33,000 tons from Seoul and 17,000 tons from Gyeonggi Province—totaling 51,000 tons—were buried in Incheon up until last month.

This is equivalent to about 2,500 20-ton trucks.

While it is managed within the annual allowable limit, it violates the "principle of treatment at the source of generation" specified by law.

The bigger problem is that plans to expand public incineration facilities in the metropolitan area are failing to gain momentum.

According to status data from the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment obtained by SBS, out of 28 planned public incineration facility expansions in the metropolitan area, 14 face an uncertain future, with two facilities in Nowon-gu and Gangnam-gu, Seoul, stalled at the initial stages due to resident opposition.

[Na Kyung-won / National Assembly Climate and Labor Committee Member (People Power Party): Expanding public garbage incineration facilities should come first, and what needs to be done now is institutional complementary measures by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment for rapid expansion.]

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment stated that it will accelerate the expansion of public incineration facilities, induce a reduction in the total volume of household waste generated, and step-by-step reduce the allowable limit for "exceptional direct landfilling" every year.

(Video reporting: Lee Seung-hwan, Yang Ji-hoon | Video editing: Jeon Min-gyu | Design: Lim Chan-hyeok | Photo courtesy of the office of Representative Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.