Jeju Environmental Resources Recycling Center in Gujwa, Jeju Island, started operating in 2019 after locals and the provincial government held months of discussions on the construction deal. The structure with a chimney, right, is an incinerator, and the square patches of land, center, are where treated waste ends up. Courtesy of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

New incinerators supported by locals help manage island's waste

By Ko Dong-hwan

JEJU ― While Seoul's plan to build a new trash incinerator in the western district of Mapo has been sparking protests from residents since last year, a similar plan on Jeju Island has developed into a very different course of action: Islanders are welcoming with open arms the construction of landfill facilities and several districts competed with each other to have them right in their backyards.

Last September, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province selected an uninhabited patch of the authority's land in the Sangcheon area of Andeok District in the island's southern city of Seogwipo as a site for the island's new waste incinerator. The selection process, which lasted nine months from December 2021, saw no disputes with the residents. It was a clean race to win the municipality's bid with no visible signs of a "not-in-my-backyard" (NIMBY) attitude among the locals.

After finding out what benefits the authority will provide to the residents living around the selected site, three different communities in Seogwipo voluntarily stepped up for the bid. Each community hoisted banners welcoming the new incinerator with hopeful and cheerful messages, a rare scene in Korea, where the public hardly embraces the construction of a large-scale waste incinerator that burns hundreds of tons of garbage every day.

"Some may think one community must sacrifice for the rest of the island by agreeing to house the new incinerator, but we didn't want the community to feel they were 'sacrificing' anything," Kim Young-gil, the chief of the Living Environment Division under the provincial government, told The Korea Times. "We were determined that the community hosting the new facility should be compensated by the island's other communities benefiting from that community's commitment."

The provincial government is to spend up to 20 percent of the government funds infused into constructing the new facility ― taking up over 27,000 square meters of land in Sangcheon and burning 380 tons of waste per day ― for the welfare of residents, such as building new community centers or facilities and paving new asphalt roads.

An additional 10 percent of waste dumping fees at the new incinerator will also go to establishing a pool for the community fund. While it may not mean much to city dwellers in bigger, more advanced areas like Mapo in Seoul, the financial subsidy is a huge deal for a small rural community and will support the quality of life of the local residents.

Trucks dump garbage down chutes to be incinerated inside Jeju Environmental Resources Recycling Center. Courtesy of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

"People usually agree to have a new waste incinerator, but when it comes to 'where,' it becomes a totally different matter," said Kim. "It's irrelevant to how mature their environmental ethics are. So incentivizing the community that decides to host that critical public infrastructure must be compensated by others who benefit from that community."

Lessons from the past

Before hosting the latest bid, the Jeju government found out about the importance of such facilities the hard way.

The island currently operates the Jeju Environmental Resources Recycling Center in the eastern part of Jeju city. It is the country's newest waste incinerator that started operating in December 2019. The entire process of introducing the center starting in 2012 taught the authority a valuable lesson on how to initiate the follow-up project in Sangcheon with minimum conflicts with members of the public.

"There were a lot of problems until the center was launched," Kim said. "Back then, there was no bidding. Instead, we decided behind closed doors and informed the public afterwards. It cost us dearly as we were met by a heavy backlash."

An Seok-bong, the chief operator of the center, witnessed everything that happened involving a facility in the Dongbok area of Jeju City's Goojwa District. It had started nicely with a local survey of whether the locals wanted a new facility. Back then, two existing incinerators on the island, in the areas of Bonggae and Saekdal, were getting old, with one scheduled for shutdown in February this year and the other closed last year.

Their limited capacities could no longer support the island's rising amount of waste. Untreated waste went to landfills or was compressed and shipped to the Philippines or stocked at a local port. The survey showed almost 70 percent welcomed the idea.

But the project faced a major obstacle when a pig farm near the site refused to relocate, halting construction for over 200 days. The government and the community had agreed to the farm's relocation before the survey, but failed to agree on the amount to be paid.

Disgruntled residents blocked the construction site's entrance with dump trucks, excavators and other vehicles. The standoff ended after the government offered to subsidize residential remodeling of all 220 households in Dongbok.

In this photo from 2012, residents of the Dongbok area in Goojwa District protest against the provincial government's plan to construct Jeju Environmental Resources Recycling Center. Courtesy of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

The second protest came in 2015 when some of the community members demanded the facility offer them piped heat generated from waste processing, which was not included in their initial agreement. The construction was again put on hold by the protesters for nearly 60 days. The government, meanwhile, persuaded the protesters that the service, based on case studies from other communities on the island, lacked feasibility in Dongbok.

"We had a countless number of meetings with the residents," An said. "We almost lived together, eating together and drinking together, to come to a mutual understanding. Meanwhile, we hoped our efforts and sincerity could somehow change their minds."

Various incentives were given to Dongbok residents. The government built a gas station and a park just outside the center's main entrance. The authority also started building near the center two apartment buildings and a community center with a 25-meter swimming pool, a sauna and an indoor playground for children. Out of 15 wind turbines towering over the forest surrounding the center, one was given to the community by the government so that its revenue goes to the community's purse. So do 10 percent of sales of household waste plastic bags sold across the island.

An is aware of the complicated situation in Mapo. Hundreds of banners roped high between trees and electric poles are fraught with coarse language and exclamations against the city government, courtesy of the local protesters against the city's plan to build a new trash incinerator in the district.

The district already has one such facility up and running in its western neighborhood of Sangam. The existing facility, burning up to 750 tons of waste per day, is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2035, while the new one underneath the old one will be completed by 2026 and treat up to 1,000 tons of trash, according to the city.

Police clash with protesters against the Seoul Metropolitan Government's plan to construct a new incinerator in Mapo District as some of the protesters try to get inside World Cup Stadium where the city government hosted an environment assessment result reporting session for the district's residents, Dec. 28, 2022. Newsis

Many residents of Mapo and a southern area of the Gyeonggi provincial city of Goyang, which borders western Seoul, where residents claim they also fall within the new incinerator's "influential zone," are refusing to become the Korean capital's wastebasket for the next 30 years or so.

An said that it would be pretty much the same anywhere in most cities in Korea with a rising volume of waste and not enough available space to treat them.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were fierce objections to any new waste treatment facility, especially in urban areas," An said. "People make demands. As a government, you just have to take heed and try to land on common ground."

Despite the Seoul Metropolitan Government's efforts to hold a meeting to explain how the site in Mapo has been chosen for the new facility and what benefits the locals will receive, the residents have been rather emotional and upset by the city's plan. Goyang residents on Jan. 5 demanded Seoul's city government host the meeting with up to 500 residents allowed to participate.

The city government, however, insisted on Jan. 11 that the number be limited to 200 since the authority's previous meeting with Mapo residents last December ― which ended up with the participating residents hollering picket-raising objections to the city plan ― was arranged under the same condition and any change to that would be unfair.

Sudokwon Landfill in Incheon, which has been accepting waste from Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi since 1992, will be permanently shut down in 2026. That is why introducing an additional incinerator to the four existing ones in the city is critical to Seoul, where over 1.18 million tons of household waste from the population of almost 10 million people and construction debris from ceaseless urban development works constantly pour out each day. The city cannot afford a NIMBY response from any local community at this point of imminent change.