• 1960~1985:        General waste disposed at local landfill sites
• 1978~1993:        Waste disposed at Nanji landfill site
• 1986:                  Mokdong incineration facility begins operations
• 1991:                  Seoul City - Basic Waste Disposal Plan established
• 1992~2005:        4 resource recovery facilities constructed
• 1993:                  Waste disposed at capital area landfill site
• 2007~2010:        4 resource recovery facilities - sharing agreements signed

• Maximize waste treatment to minimize the amount disposed at landfill sites.
• Install a suitable number of waste disposal facilities to maximize the resource recovery rate.
• Minimize creation of toxic materials during the incineration process and improve safety for local residents.
• Coordinate on supplementary facilities with local residents to improve welfare.

1) Shared Incineration Facilities

There are four incineration sites in Seoul: Yangcheon Facility, Nowon Facility, Gangnam Facility and Mapo Facility. These all operate within the city of Seoul (with a capacity of at least 400 tons a day). Plans for these facilities began in 1991. 
 
The original plans were to build 11 incineration facilities to handle 16,500 tons of waste per day, but only 4 facilities have been constructed. Construction started in October 1992, and the first one to be completed was Yangcheon Facility in February 1996. This was followed by Nowon in January 1997, Gangnam in December 2001, and Mapo in May 2005.
 
Construction of Yangcheon Facility began in December 1992, and was finished in February 1996. It has a capacity of 400 tons per day, with 2 incinerators that each process 200 tons. Construction of Nowon Facility also began in December 1992 and finished in January 1997. It has a capacity of 800 tons: 2 incinerators that can process 400 tons each per day. Construction of Gangnam Facility started in December 1994 and finished in December 2001. It has a capacity of 900 tons per day, the largest of the 4 facilities, and its 3 incinerators each can process 300 tons per day. Construction of Mapo Facility began in December 2001 and completed in May 2005. The facility has 3 incinerators, each of which can handle 250 tons per day, for a total capacity of 750 tons.

Table 1. Construction of Incineration Facilities in Seoul

Figure 1. Structure of Mapo Incineration Facility

These incineration facilities can process a total of up to 2,850 tons per day. The capacity was estimated based on the amount of waste expected at the time they were designed, and the amount estimated for the future. When comparing the original 1991 plans (11 facilities, 16,500 tons processed per day) to the actual capacity (4 facilities, 2,850 tons per day), only 36% of the facilities were built and together they have only 17% of the intended capacity. On the surface, they do not seem to be enough to handle the city’s municipal solid waste (MSW). However, various waste reduction policies (introduction of VBWF, expansion of recycling, and turning food waste into a resource) were put in place while the facilities were being constructed. In the 2000s, when all 4 facilities were in operation, the amount of waste generated had significantly decreased, meaning the 4 facilities could cover more MSW in Seoul. Yangcheon Facility, for example, was designed while expecting about 400 tons of waste from Yangcheon-gu. But the district only generated 212 tons in 2002 and 101 tons in 2012: 53% and 25% of the capacity, respectively. The Nowon Facility also used about 25% (2002) and 15% (2012) of its capacity, while 33-34% was recorded for the Gangnam Facility. Mapo Facility had been designed to process MSW for Mapo-gu, Jung-gu and Yongsan-gu, with a capacity of 750 tons per day. However, the amount generated was only about 60% of its capacity in 2012.

 
Table 2. Capacity of Incinerator facilities in Seoul & Actual MSW Volume

Reducing MSW enabled expansion of the area to be handled by the 4 incineration facilities. From 2007, the facilities began accepting MSW from neighboring gu-districts. Yangcheon Facility took MSW from Yeongdeungpo-gu and Gangseo-gu as well as from Yangcheon-gu. Gangnam Facility also began processing MSW from 7 other districts. Today, the 4 incineration facilities in Seoul handle the MSW from 22 of the 25 gu-districts in the city.
 
Before the facilities were shared, they were not utilized as much. As shown in the 2005 records, Yangcheon Facility processed only 33% of its capacity, Nowon Facility 19%, Gangnam Facility 24% and Mapo Facility 59%. This is because the local district and residents did not want the facilities to process waste from other areas. Reducing MSW was a success, but this affected the incineration facility utilization rate, and concerns increased about the aging and malfunctioning of incinerators, pollution prevention facilities and controlling devices. While the facilities in Seoul remained underused, MSW from the city was still sent to the Sudokwon Landfill Site (the capital region landfill site), 45 km from Seoul. The cost in money and energy for transportation increased, causing problems for the SMG, which had its own incineration facilities.
 
However, it is not advisable for gu-districts to build and run their own incineration facilities, especially when considering the difficulty of securing the needed expert personnel. Waste incineration facilities require high-end technology and need to run 24/7, which demands a large number of people. Each facility employs about 70 persons, and there are many tasks that require staff with national certification, between 12 and 20 per facility. Of course, operational costs are huge as certified employees are required for industrial safety, electronic, energy utilization, preventing environmental pollution, firefighting, management of high-pressure gas and more. The facilities themselves are also large. The cost to run each ranged from KRW 8.3 billion to 21.3 billion in 2012. Three of the 4 facilities (Mapo excluded) recorded losses between KRW 0.5 and 1.5 billion. This means overall operations resulted in losses of KRW 15.5 billion, which was partially covered by the SMG, which also shared the KRW 393.1 billion cost of construction of the facilities with the central government.

Considering the above, it is more efficient for the SMG, rather than the local gu-districts, to run large, technology-intensive facilities like incinerators in terms of securing expertise and reducing costs.

To resolve these problems and reduce overall operating costs, the SMG began regionalizing its incineration facilities in 2001 - sharing them with neighboring gu-districts. However, this was not easy. First of all, agreement had to be gained from residents living near each incineration facility. Through agreements with the SMG, a resident consultative group was formed, through which residents were able to address concerns over facility operation and their health and welfare, and monitor the composition of waste. It took between 1 and 9 years for the residents, SMG and resident consultative groups to meet and negotiate agreements for shared use of the facilities.
 
Sharing each facility was beneficial in many ways. First of all, 22 of the city’s gu-districts now had access to the facilities by 2014. Sharing the facilities improved the overall utilization rates significantly - from 19-59% (or an average of 33%) in 2006 to 77-92% (or an average of 85%) in 2012.

Once the agreements were signed, 4 incineration facilities were secured as regional facilities for local districts, dividing Seoul into 4 areas for processing MSW. The gu-districts now send their trash to 1 of the 4 incineration facilities, by region: Southwest Region (Yangcheon Facility), Northeast Region (Nowon Facility), Southeast Region (Gangnam Facility) and Northwest Region (Mapo Facility).
 

Figure 2. Facility Utilization Rate & Changes in Coverage after Agreements Signed to Share the Incineration Facilities

 

Figure 3. Incineration Facilities in Seoul and their Assigned Areas

 

Figure 4. Construction of Incineration Facilities in Seoul and Major Changes in the Waste Management Policy

 
 

2) Construction of New Towns & Cooperation with Incineration Facilities & District Heating

Cities in Korea developed rapidly over the last 60 years. The suburbs were developed as residential areas to accommodate the population influx from the rest of the country. Yeouido (1967) and Yeongdong (1967) were developed in the 1960s. In the 1970s, Jamsil (1971) was developed to disperse the concentration in Jongro and Junggu. In the 1980s, Gaepo (1981), Godeok (1981), Mokdong (1983) and Sanggye (1985) were all developed as large-scale residential areas.

During the construction of these “new towns”, 2 incineration sites were secured where the Yangcheon Facility (May 1983, construction decided in Mokdong New City Development Plan) and Gangnam Facility (January 1986, city facility decided as waste disposal facility) were built. The other two incineration facilities have undergone similar situations. Mapo Facility was constructed in World Cup Park, part of the Sangam Housing Area which began construction in 2000. Nowon Facility was assigned as a waste disposal facility in December 1977, before the Sanggye area was developed in 1985.

As this shows, construction of incineration facilities connected to new town development makes it easier to find sites for those facilities, and reduce opposition from local residents. Moreover, utilizing the heat from incineration as energy for district heating is another benefit of connecting the construction of incineration facilities with new town development. District heating began in Lockport, New York, U.S.A in 1877, and spread to other parts of North America, Europe and Japan. In Korea, the first such approach was a feasibility study on remodeling of the Seoul Thermoelectric Power Plant into a cogeneration plant to provide heat to Yeouido, Dongbuichon and Banpo in 1981. The actual start was in Mokdong and Shinjeongdong, which provided heat to 20,000 houses. After the first and second oil shock, interest in energy efficiency was high in the 1970s. In 1987, remodeling of the Seoul Thermoelectric Power Plant into a cogeneration plant was determined. In 1989, a district heating scheme was decided for Ilsan and 4 other cities. Along with this trend, the 4 incineration facilities in Seoul could also be connected with district heating facilities. Yangcheon-gu provides heat to 140,000 homes, and the incineration heat ratio for district heating is 16%. Nowon provides heat to 128,000 homes at a 23% rate, and Gangnam to 176,000 homes with a 27% incineration heat ratio. The Mapo area shows the highest incineration energy rate, as much as 57%. Heat is provided to 70,000 homes.
 

Figure 5. District Heating & Incineration Facility Locations

 

Gas Emission Electronic Display Near the Incineration Facility

Auto Dioxin Collector Kit

1) Reducing Use of Landfills

2) Energy Reduction

1) Local Resident Opposition to Incineration Facilities

Solutions

Residents have enjoyed long-term and regular medical checkups. Seoul began monitoring health in 2000 to track any connection between resident exposure and health issues. The city has also run pollution-controlling facilities, limited traffic and monitored the material coming in as waste. While these efforts are to track the health of nearby residents potentially affected by dioxin and other toxins from the incineration facilities, they also help with objective evaluation of the environmental impact. This enables the SMG to confirm the safety of such facilities, resolve resident concerns, and find solutions when negative impact does occur. Investigations are in 3 areas: air quality assessment (environmental impact), assessment of dioxin and heavy metal in blood stream (impact on human body) and assessment of the overall physical and mental health of residents (health impact). Fixed research groups, volunteers and facility employees undergo body and health examinations. Recently, examinations have been only on the fixed research group, while additional pollutants such as dioxin in the atmosphere or black carbon density were added to monitoring. Assessed items, methods and targets are decided upon agreement with the resident consultative group. The 10th examination was conducted in 2014, and none have shown any negative impact on the environment, the body or health.

Program to Enhance Local Resident Convenience

Continuous Effort to Earn the Trust of Local Residents

Presentations to Hear Residents, Reception of Complaints

Subsidiary Facilities for Residents

2) Incineration Facility Installation & Management - Duties & Costs

• Seoul Metropolitan Government, 1991, 「 Seoul Metropolitan Government - Basic Waste Disposal Plan」
• ŸSeoul Metropolitan Government, 2013, 「2012 White Paper of Environment: Seoul's Environment」
• ŸSeoul Metropolitan Council, 2006, 「Studies of Resource Recovery Facility Productivity Improvement」
• Yoo Gi Yeong, Jo Hang Mun, Kim Gui Yeong, 2013, Studies on Integrated Operation's Efficiency for Seoul City Group Energy Facilities and Environmental Facilities, Seoul Institute
• ŸLee Beomhyeon, 2012, 2011, Economic Development Experience Module Project: Korean New City Development, Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements
• ŸKorea District Heating Corporation Hwaseong Branch, 2013, 「Handbook of District Heating Facilities」
• ŸMinistry of Environment, 2013, 「National Waste Generation and D