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A truck is seen at Sudokwon Landfill in Incheon, Jan. 2. Simply 66 tons of family waste entered the power on the second day of the capital‑space direct landfill ban, about 3 % of the earlier day by day common of two,045 tons of family waste. Yonhap
Seoul’s waste administration system modified in a single day on Jan. 1.
Vehicles that when lined as much as dump combined family waste on the Sudokwon Landfill Website in Incheon, west of the capital, have largely disappeared. Solely ash and residue from incineration can now be buried there, forcing Seoul and different native governments within the capital area to burn or recycle their trash earlier than something is landfilled.
In response to the government-run Sudokwon Landfill Administration Corp., simply 66 tons of family waste entered the Incheon facility on the second day of the capital space’s direct landfill ban. That’s solely about 3 % of the two,045‑ton day by day common for immediately landfilled family waste recorded there final yr.
Below the brand new coverage, native governments in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province are not allowed to bury family rubbish in commonplace pay‑as‑you‑throw baggage on the Sudokwan facility. Solely waste that has been processed first, akin to incineration ash or nonrecyclable residues left after sorting, can now be buried there.
The rule is the primary stage of a nationwide shift, with the identical ban scheduled to use to the remainder of Korea in 2030, a part of a broader push to maneuver away from landfill‑centered disposal towards a useful resource‑circulation mannequin.
To the reduction of metropolis officers, a much-feared waste disaster has not materialized within the first weeks of the brand new coverage. Nevertheless, they acknowledge that with out main funding in incinerators and different waste infrastructure, it may grow to be one other supply of political pressure and regional battle.
In response to Jung Mi-sun, director of Seoul’s useful resource circulation division, households within the metropolis generated about 3,000 tons of waste per day final yr. On a full‑yr common, roughly 67 % of that was burned on the metropolis’s municipal waste‑to‑power amenities in Gangnam, Nowon, Mapo and Yangcheon districts, with the remaining dealt with exterior town — partly at Sudokwon and the remaining at personal incinerators.
“To this point this yr, we now have tightened plant operations and likewise as a result of waste volumes are comparatively low in the beginning of the yr, we now have been capable of incinerate about 83 % of our family waste throughout the metropolis,” she advised The Korea Instances. “The remaining 17 % can not go to the Sudokwon Landfill, so it has to go to non-public amenities.”
Environmental activists maintain a rally close to Metropolis Corridor in Seoul, Dec. 15, 2025, urging metropolis authorities to take correct measures to mitigate what they name a “waste‑dumping disaster.” Courtesy of Seoul Korean Federation for Environmental Actions
Seoul has no personal incinerators, which means the remaining 17 % is shipped to vegetation exterior town. Whereas a lot of the waste goes to amenities elsewhere within the capital area, some contracts contain vegetation in different areas, fueling complaints that the precept of treating waste near the place it’s produced is being deserted.
“Even when personal sector contracts are concerned, we are going to mobilize each doable measure at our disposal to reply proactively by strictly making use of emission requirements and permitted capacities, and by reinforcing inspections,” stated Lee Beom-seok, mayor of Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, the place personal incinerators take hundreds of tons of waste from Seoul’s Gangnam District.
Seoul metropolis officers counter that the quantity really despatched to the provinces to this point may be very small. Jung stated that since Jan. 1, solely about 0.3 % of Seoul’s family waste has gone to non-public incinerators within the Chungcheong area. Even so, she acknowledged, residents there would possibly moderately ask why capital-region waste ought to cross provincial borders in any respect, because the ban is meant to push the area to unravel its personal rubbish issues.
For Seoul, the lengthy‑time period reply is chopping down on the quantity of waste generated, rising the quantity of recycling and constructing extra incineration capability. The town is increasing campaigns to scale back single‑use merchandise.
Officers of the Folks Energy Occasion’s Mapo District Workplace protest at Seoul Metropolis Corridor towards Mayor Oh Se‑hoon’s plan to construct a brand new incineration facility of their district, Tuesday. Yonhap
However efforts to scale back rubbish gained’t be ample.
The town authorities’s 4 incineration vegetation are able to dealing with about 2,850 tons per day, nonetheless leaving town roughly 1,000 tons wanting the day by day incineration capability it wants underneath the landfill ban. In an effort to shut that hole, town pushed to construct an extra plant in Mapo, however the undertaking has been halted attributable to fierce native opposition and an administrative courtroom ruling, highlighting how politically tough it’s to safe and construct such amenities.
Jung stated town authorities will proceed to push for the undertaking. If a brand new 1,000‑ton‑per‑day plant is constructed, she added, town would be capable of deal with nearly all of its family waste with out counting on different areas.
Specialists say the capital space has to this point narrowly averted a full‑blown trash disaster, however warn that stopgap measures akin to sending trash to different areas is not going to work as soon as the direct landfill ban expands nationwide in 2030.
In response to the Ministry of Local weather, Power and Setting, 27 new public incineration vegetation are at present on the drafting board within the capital area, but just one has really damaged floor, in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. To win over residents, the Seongnam metropolis authorities arrange a fund to assist about 500 households dwelling inside 300 meters of the location, positioning the undertaking as a mannequin for coexistence between residents and important however unpopular waste infrastructure.
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