The government said it would shorten the time it takes to expand public incinerators from the current 11 years and 8 months, from "site selection" to "facility construction," to 8 years and 2 months.
Since January this year, a ban on direct landfilling of household waste has been in effect in the greater Seoul area. Incinerators must handle trash that cannot be landfilled. But private incinerators in the capital region are at full capacity, and so-called "away incineration," in which capital-area trash goes to incinerators outside the region, is surging. Starting in 2030, direct landfilling will be banned nationwide, making disruption inevitable. In response, the government rolled out a plan to rapidly add public incinerators.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment on the 12th at Government Complex Seoul announced a "plan to shorten expansion projects for public incineration facilities" that would cut the current timeline by up to 3 years and 6 months.
The public incinerator installation process proceeds in the following order: ▲ project composition and site selection ▲ master plan and administrative procedures ▲ basic design and detailed design ▲ facility construction. In the first step, including site selection, the government plans to shorten the timeline by prioritizing a strategic environmental assessment review and raising the additional charge on waste treatment fees.
The waste treatment fee is a system under which when Municipality A brings trash into Municipality B's waste treatment facility, Municipality A pays Municipality B an additional charge equal to 10% of the waste treatment fee. Kim Go-eung, Director General of the ministry's Resources Circulation Bureau, said, "We plan to raise the additional charge rate so that money can be used to support residents in areas hosting waste treatment, thereby improving resident acceptance."
In the second step, including the master plan, the government will prepare standard guidelines for calculating incinerator capacity, conduct expedited consultations for swift execution of local government finance investment reviews, and streamline consultation procedures. In the third step, including basic design, it will proceed with various permits and approvals in parallel and streamline consultation procedures. In the final facility construction step, it plans to shorten the period by manufacturing equipment in parallel and in advance.
The government also decided to expand the scale of state subsidies by adding items such as "site acquisition costs" to the subsidy category, which currently covers 20% of the incineration facility installation expense.
The ministry also said it would fundamentally reduce the volume of waste incinerated. Minister Kim Sung-hwan said, "Even if an item is in a volume-based fee bag, if you open it up, 30% to 45% can be recycled without incineration, and we will work to expand the distribution of 'pre-treatment facilities for volume-based fee bags' to handle these," adding, "In particular, the three jurisdictions in the capital region aim to cut household waste generation by about more than 8% by 2030."
According to the ministry, 27 public incinerator expansion projects are currently underway in the capital region. For the facility now in the site selection stage and expected to be completed the latest, completion is anticipated in 2033. Director General Kim said, "With this measure, we can shorten the period by 3 years and 6 months, so we believe all 27 incineration facilities can be completed by 2030 at the latest."