The third attempt to find a new metropolitan landfill site has ultimately failed.
The Ministry of Environment, along with Incheon City, Seoul City, and Gyeonggi Province, announced on the 25th that no local governments applied for the metropolitan alternative landfill site contest held over three months since March.
The failed third contest reduced the minimum site area (900,000㎡) and required ancillary facilities compared to previous contests, while increasing the special support fund of approximately 300 billion KRW given to the hosting local government by 50 billion KRW.
The Ministry of Environment and metropolitan local governments plan to proceed with a fourth contest by relaxing conditions and reconsidering incentives.
One of the conditions to be relaxed is the requirement for consent from more than 50% of household heads registered within 2 km of the candidate site boundary. This is interpreted as a measure considering that landfill sites are typical "NIMBY (Not In My Backyard)" facilities, where obtaining resident consent is practically impossible. NIMBY refers to actions opposing projects that serve the public interest but are disadvantageous to the local area to which one belongs.
Specific conditions, incentives, and timing for the fourth contest will be announced later.
However, there are criticisms that resolving the metropolitan landfill issue is difficult under the current method of publicly recruiting new landfill site candidates. It is explained that the Ministry of Environment, the competent authority, has limited power to provide incentives to or pressure metropolitan and local governments with conflicting interests.
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