Starting in January next year, in the capital region, municipal solid waste cannot be landfilled unless it is incinerated.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment met with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Incheon Metropolitan City, and Gyeonggi Province at the Government Complex Seoul on the 17th to discuss detailed plans for implementing the ban on direct landfilling.
The ban on direct landfilling is a system that requires only the ash generated after incinerating nonrecyclable municipal solid waste to be landfilled. It is based on the Enforcement Rule of the Wastes Control Act revised in July 2021, and direct landfilling will be banned in the capital region next year and outside the capital region starting in 2030.
There had been expectations that the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment would postpone the ban on direct landfilling in the capital region by one year due to a shortage of incinerators, but the ministry decided to implement the system as scheduled.
On the day, the ministry checked the preparedness of the three local governments and also discussed specific criteria. They reviewed allowing direct landfilling as an exception in cases of disasters or when incineration facilities are shut down, and plan to finalize the exception standards within the year.
An official at the ministry said, "When the ban on direct landfilling takes effect, we plan to make full use not only of public incinerators but also private incinerators," while adding, "If municipal solid waste continues to go unprocessed due to a shortage of incinerators, we will also consider allowing direct landfilling as an exception."