Gwangyang-si Increases Non-Tax Revenue Through Promotion of Recycling

Sale of Food Waste Grease and Other Waste Resources, Annual Revenue Expected at 350 Million KRW

2021 Jeollanam-do Sejeong Yeonchanhoe Excellence Award in Non-Tax Revenue Discovery Category

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik] Gwangyang City in Jeonnam announced on the 26th that it is continuously increasing non-tax revenue by minimizing the landfill of household waste and actively promoting recycling.

In 2021, the city sorted 3,224 tons of recyclables brought into the recycling sorting facility within the household waste landfill site annually, recovered 2,547 tons of waste resources, which is 79% of the total, and sold them to recycling companies, securing 234 million KRW in non-tax revenue annually.

To increase the recycling sorting rate of waste resources, the city is improving facilities such as installing a Styrofoam compactor at the recycling sorting facility, and once the facility improvement work is completed, it is expected that the current recycling sorting rate can be raised to 85%.

Additionally, 16,098 tons of food waste are brought annually to the food resource recovery facility, where all of it is pretreated and byproducts are added to produce organic compost. As of 2021, the sales revenue from resource recycling and compost byproducts amounted to 56 million KRW, all of which was recorded as revenue.

In the food resource recovery facility sector, edible oils and other animal and plant fats were separated and extracted from food waste wastewater and sold, generating 60 million KRW in non-tax revenue. By removing fats from the wastewater, the quality of discharged water (based on COD) was reduced by 50% when high-concentration wastewater was treated together with leachate.

Kim Jin-ho, head of the Household Waste Division, stated, “Going forward, we will strive to align with the government’s resource circulation policy by conducting advanced site visits for employees and collecting citizens’ opinions regarding the treatment of recyclable waste and food waste.”

Gwangyang = Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik hss79@asiae.co.kr