[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Suwon City in Gyeonggi Province decided on the 18th to activate an 'emergency task force' after determining that operational disruptions at the Resource Circulation Center's sorting facility were inevitable due to a fire.
On the same day, Suwon City held an emergency countermeasure meeting with Suwon Urban Corporation, which manages the Resource Circulation Center under contract, and the cleaning service company to devise plans to minimize citizen inconvenience by ensuring smooth collection and processing of recyclable materials.
Through this meeting, the city decided to mobilize all administrative resources to prevent any disruption in the collection and processing of recyclables and other waste.
Even on the day of the fire, collection of recyclables from major main roads and the old downtown area was completed, except for some uncollected complexes within apartment complexes.
Additionally, to prevent delays in recyclable collection, the city will initiate emergency duty over the weekend and focus all efforts on normalizing the Resource Circulation Center and devising countermeasures.
As a temporary storage site for recyclables, the city decided to utilize the expansion site of the 'Food Waste Resource Facility' in Gwonseon-gu.
Suwon City, which processes an average of 128 tons of recyclables daily, plans to send all incoming recyclables to a temporary transfer station (a place where recyclables are temporarily gathered before being sent to processing companies) due to the unavoidable suspension of sorting operations for plastics and other recyclables caused by the fire.
Furthermore, since an increase in recyclable waste is expected during the Chuseok holiday and due to COVID-19, the city plans to monitor processing trends during the recovery period and prepare plans to secure additional temporary transfer station sites.
Moreover, once the fire investigation is completed, Suwon Urban Corporation will conduct a safety inspection of the partially damaged sorting facility and complete restoration work as soon as possible.
Mayor Yeom Tae-young of Suwon City canceled his official schedule on the day and visited the countermeasure headquarters set up at the site, ordering the prompt establishment of waste collection and processing measures and restoration plans for the sorting facility affected by the fire to minimize citizen inconvenience.
The fire was contained without further damage thanks to a joint firefighting operation by fire departments. The fire broke out around 2:58 a.m., and the fire station that responded immediately after receiving the report began extinguishing efforts, successfully controlling the main fire by around 7:10 a.m. to prevent further spread.
In particular, rapid reporting and joint firefighting efforts by the special response teams from the Suwon, Yongin, and Bundang fire headquarters, along with 12 fire stations including Hwaseong, Icheon, Osan, Gwangju, Uiwang, Gunpo, Ansan, and Gwangmyeong, prevented the fire from spreading to large amounts of plastic and waste wood stored in the yard in front of the sorting facility, minimizing damage.
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