Geumcheon-gu's 'Waste Wood Sale Budget Savings, Carbon Neutrality' Selected as Seoul City's Exemplary Case of Proactive Administration

Achieving Triple Benefits of Budget Savings, Carbon Neutrality, and Tax Revenue through Waste Wood Sales Agreement

Geumcheon-gu (Mayor Yu Seong-hoon) announced that the agreement to sell waste wood won the 'Excellence Award' in the autonomous district category at the Seoul Metropolitan Government's '2024 Second Half Active Administration Best Practice Competition.'

The '2024 Second Half Active Administration Best Practice Competition' was held to discover outstanding cases that proactively and creatively respond to new administrative demands and social changes, thereby creating public benefits.

Geumcheon-gu's best practice was highly evaluated for being the first in Seoul to sign an agreement to sell waste wood to a company that recycles it into solid fuel, achieving a triple effect of budget savings, carbon neutrality, and securing tax revenue.

The district spent 170 million KRW over the past five years to process 16,000 tons of waste wood, such as furniture, discharged as large household waste within the region.

The responsible department (Cleaning Administration Division) improved the waste wood disposal method by noting the increased market value of eco-friendly renewable energy resources such as solid waste fuel due to the mandatory supply system for new renewable energy.

Although there were no previous cases of signing sales agreements, the district faced difficulties in discovering and persuading companies, but through active market research, meetings, and negotiations with companies, it signed an agreement to sell waste wood to recycling companies.

The district sold about 2,700 tons of waste wood, which was previously processed at a cost, at 20,000 KRW per ton, saving approximately 103 million KRW in budget and reducing carbon emissions by 4,000 tons.

Yu Seong-hoon, Mayor of Geumcheon-gu, said, "I am pleased that our proactive work for the residents has been recognized externally," and added, "We will continue to actively support establishing an organizational culture where public officials can perform their duties proactively."

Meanwhile, this evaluation selected seven outstanding institutions each from city and main office projects, autonomous districts, and six local public institutions through document screening, voting by citizens, employees, and monitoring groups, and final selection by the Seoul Active Administration Committee.