[Anchor]

The direct landfilling of household waste was legally banned in the greater Seoul area starting this year. However, due to a shortage of incineration facilities and sites requiring maintenance, the government made an exception to allow 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. Meanwhile, the expansion of public incineration plants—the fundamental solution—remains sluggish.

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has this exclusive report.

[Reporter]

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

Lines of trucks dump standard garbage bags.

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

About 8,500 tons of household waste per month from across the greater Seoul area are flowing into this landfill.

This garbage comes from places like Seongbuk-gu in Seoul and Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province, rather than Incheon, the host of the landfill.

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

However, as regional conflicts erupted with greater Seoul's garbage being hauled as far as South Chungcheong and Gangwon provinces due to a shortage of public incineration plants, the government permitted exceptional direct landfilling in March.

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

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

While authorities claim it is managed within the annual allowable limit, it violates the "polluter-pays and place-of-generation disposal principle" stipulated by law.

A bigger problem is that plans to expand public incineration plants in the metropolitan area are failing to pick up speed.

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 greater Seoul area, the expansion of 14 remains uncertain—with projects such as those in Nowon-gu and Gangnam-gu, Seoul, stalling at the initial stages due to resident backlash.

[Na Kyung-won / National Assembly Climate and Labor Committee Member (People Power Party): Expanding public garbage incineration facilities should come first. What is needed now are institutional complementary measures from the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment for swift expansion.]

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

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Lee Seung-hwan and Yang Ji-hoon | Video by Jeon Min-gyu | Graphics by Im Chan-hyeok | Data provided by the office of National Assembly Member Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party)