Seoul Metropolitan Area Alternative Landfill Site Re-bid to Proceed... "Considering Measures to Reduce Area and Lower Resident Consent Requirements"

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[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The task force for securing an alternative landfill site in the Seoul metropolitan area, consisting of the Ministry of Environment, Seoul City, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon City, decided to promptly discuss and determine whether to conduct a re-bid.

On the 15th, a Ministry of Environment official stated, "At the task force meeting, opinions were raised that it is necessary to relax the bidding requirements and hold a re-bid," adding, "We decided to review measures to reduce the total site area of the bidding target region and lower the consent requirements from landowners."

Originally, the site area condition for the bid was at least 2.2 million square meters, with a minimum actual landfill area of 1.7 million square meters, but the threshold will be lowered to allow bids for smaller sites. Additionally, the consent rate requirement, which mandated that the heads of local governments intending to apply must obtain consent from more than 50% of household heads registered as residents within 2 km of the candidate site boundary and more than 70% of the landowners of the candidate site, is also being considered for relaxation.

Previously, the four-party consultative body on the Seoul metropolitan landfill policy (Ministry of Environment and three metropolitan governments) agreed on June 28, 2015, to solicit candidate sites for alternative landfills to stably process metropolitan waste. The bidding for alternative landfill sites was conducted from January 14 to this month’s 14th. However, no local governments applied. Therefore, the task force held a meeting and decided to relax the bidding requirements and proceed with a re-bid.

Through the meeting held on the same day, the task force agreed to hold monthly director-level discussions among the four parties to address issues such as reducing waste inflow to the metropolitan landfill. They also decided to promptly expand incineration facilities to ban the inflow of volume-based waste to the metropolitan landfill and to promote restrictions on the inflow of construction waste.

In addition, the Minister of Environment plans to pursue bilateral or multilateral meetings with the Mayor of Seoul, the Mayor of Incheon, and the Governor of Gyeonggi Province.