No Place to Go, Sent to Incheon: 2,500 Trucks' Worth Dumped

[Anchor]

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

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has this exclusive report.

[Reporter]

A household waste landfill in Geomdan-gu, Incheon.

A line of trucks unloads standard garbage bags.

Behind me, standard garbage bags are piled up everywhere.

About 8,500 tons of household waste on a monthly average are coming into this landfill from the capital area.

They came not from Incheon, where the landfill is located, but from Seongbuk-gu in Seoul and Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province, among other areas.

Following the revision of the Wastes Control Act, the direct landfilling of household waste in the capital area was banned starting January.

However, due to a shortage of public incineration plants, capital area waste was being transported all the way to South Chungcheong and Gangwon provinces, causing regional conflicts. Consequently, the government permitted exceptional direct landfilling in March.

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

This amounts to about 2,500 20-ton trucks' worth.

Although it is said to be 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 capital area are not progressing at the proper pace.

According to status data obtained by SBS from the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, out of 28 planned expansions for public incineration facilities in the capital area, 14 expansions remain uncertain, including two in Nowon-gu and Gangnam-gu, Seoul, which have stalled in the early stages due to resident opposition.

[Na Kyung-won / Member, National Assembly Climate and Labor Committee (People Power Party): Expanding public garbage incineration facilities should come first, and what needs to be done right now are institutional supplementary 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, encourage a reduction in the total volume of household waste generated, and step-by-step reduce the allowable limit for "exceptional direct landfilling" year by year.

(Reported by Lee Seung-hwan and Yang Ji-hoon | Video edited by Jeon Min-gyu | Design by Lim Chan-hyuk | Data provided by the office of lawmaker Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.