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| A bulldozer covers collected waste with dirt at the Sudokwon Landfill in Incheon. Courtesy of the Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corp. |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Starting in 2026, disposed household trash bags collected from Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province and Incheon that have not been incinerated or sorted out as recyclable materials will be banned from being dumped in landfills, according to new government regulations.
The Ministry of Environment announced Tuesday that household trash from the rest of the country will also be subject to the regulations starting 2030.
The rule has been introduced to reduce the mounting volume of waste being dumped on the Sudokwon Landfill in western Incheon, where all waste collected from Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province ends up, as well as at other landfills across the country.
It is designed to ease the "burden" at the Sudokwon Landfill in particular, as this is expected to max out its capacity in five years if the current volume of dumping is maintained. The ministry said that if all the household trash at the landfill were to be incinerated instead, its entire volume would drop by as much as 90 percent.
Three million tons of various types of waste, including household trash and that from industrial sites were dumped in the Sudokwon Landdfill last year. Among this, 750,000 tons consisted of household trash that was not incinerated. The figure peaked in 2019 at 786,000 tons.
"If all the household trash at the Sudokwon Landfill was to be incinerated, we would certainly be able to delay the deadline when the facility is expected to reach maximum capacity," a ministry official said.
The new rule is forcing Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi to expand or build incineration plants. Seoul city has launched a committee to search for a new location to build a new incinerator. Incheon plans to renovate two existing incineration plants and build two new ones.
The Gyeonggi provincial government said that five existing incinerators will be upgraded so that each can treat 450 tons of trash daily. In addition, four new plants will be built, each capable of incinerating over 1,000 tons a day. The province also plans to revamp six existing sorting facilities where daily trash and recyclables are separated, and to build six additional ones.
