The corporation implements circulatory waste resource management system

Lee Jeong-Joo, president of the Sudokwon (Seoul and its vicinity) Landfill Site Management Corporation, said that as part of plans to implement the "system of circulatory waste resource management," his corporation now operates a 6,500kW/h electricity-generation facility by using landfill gas. The facility, which began operations in November 2001, generates electricity worth 3 billion won per year, including electricity worth 600 million won that is sold to the Korea Electric Power Corporation. The remaining electricity worth 2.4 billion won is consumed by the corporation. "We plan to establish a 50,000kW/h electricity-generation facility in 2004. This facility is capable of supplying electricity to about 180,000 households," Lee said in an interview with NewsWorld.

Exceprts from the interview follow:

Q: Your corporation has introduced and implemented the system of circulatory waste resource management. Can you explain the system?

A: The system calls for recycling of part of waste. Under this scheme, only one-tenth of waste brought in from Seoul and its vicinity is buried, which now amounts to 20,000 tons per day. With landfill gas emitted from the remaining waste, we can generate electricity of 150,000kW/h for about 500,000 households. We received the Presidential Award for the introduction of the system on the occasion of the Environment Day which fell on June 5.

We will build an ecological park, flower complex, youth outdoor training camp, reservoir and golf course on the idle landfill site. We finished a feasibility study on the system. Last July, we obtained a patent for the system.

Q: I know that the corporation has obtained a patent for its leachate treatment. Would you tell us about it?

A: The landfill generates 5,000 tons of leachate a day. The leachate contains salt. We will complete the construction of facilities to desalt it within this year. We can spray the desalted water on flowers and use for other purposes.

We have already obtained a patent for the technology. We plan to apply for an international patent. I think that the technology can be utilized to treat leftovers of food in China and Southeast Asia. Previously, the treatment of leachate costed 5,000 won per ton.

Q: How many employees do your have? And how long the landfill can be used?

A: The corporation now has about 200 employees. The reclaimed landfill occupies 6.28 million pyong (20.7 million square meters) of land. We purchased the landfill site at a cost of 45 billion won. We can use the landfill site for the next 30 years. But the life span can be extended to 300 years since now only one-tenth of waste brought in from Seoul and its vicinity is buried. The landfill site is far from villages. It is located beside the West Sea. A total of 4.7 million pyong (15.5 million square meters) of land near the landfill site has been designated by the government as 'special economic zone.'

Q: I think that the hygienic landfill site can attract tourists. How many people visit the landfill?

A: About 200 to 300 children visit the landfill site per day, which is being transformed into an ecological park or green park. In other words, an estimated 50,000 children visit the landfill site per year. When children visit the landfill site, we present a film. We plan to build a waste museum. This museum will serve as a showcase of waste, including waste buried long ago, how buried waste has changed and others. We also plan to build a golf course on the landfill site. We have been trying to minimize the amount of waste buried underground (or returned to the nature) to help facilitate sustainable development.

Q: I know that the corporation was established in July 2000 to treat waste generated by approximately 25 million people living in Seoul and its vicinity. Can you introduce our readers to your corporation?

A: The corporation was established to process waste in a safe and environmentally- friendly manner. Our corporation is testing wastes for hazardous toxics with state-of-the-art equipment and continuously inspecting changes on the effects in the environment and developing businesses that contribute to a comfortable living environment in the surrounding areas. Our corporation will continuously inspect in the understanding that waste is not simply 'dump' but that they are resources, and will continue to promote business that use waste as resource to create tangible and non-tangible values. We also plan to recreate the landfill and project businesses that will accompany the plan of building a world-famous ecological park with trees and flowers, a leisure environmental compound.

Since the establishment of the corporation two years ago, we have endeavored to transform the landfill site into an advanced resources base amid the changing circumstances. The Surrounding Residents Support Committee and the Steering Committee, both consisting members from the government and the private sector, were inaugurated to help resolve complaints of local residents. As a result, the corporation and local residents have established cooperative relations, which enables the corporation to develop the landfill site to a future-oriented, developed landfill site. Bad smell has diminished thanks to the use of landfill gas to generate electricity, spraying deodorants everyday and others. With state-of-the-art technology, we have also achieved the almost perfect treatment of leachate. These provide the local governments as well as local residents with an opportunity to promote their understanding of the landfill site as a state-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly complex. Ban on night-time carrying-in waste has diminished noise and the transparent management of the landfill site have helped the corporation to improve its credibility. As a result of these, the landfill site has been reborn from hated, abandoned land to land of resources on which the system of circulatory waste resource management has been introduced.

Q:Can you explain your plans to build an ecological park or a dream-park, and a reservoir on the landfill site?

A: To build an environmentally-friendly, ecological park on the entire landfill site, we launched a 10-year campaign to plant 1 million trees on the landfill site per year this year. An estimated 700,000 trees have been planted so far. We also operate a tree bank. Anyone can contribute trees through the bank. In addition, we have established a sapling field on some 50,000 pyong (165,000 square meters) of land. These create about 10,000 jobs for local residents a year. The areas near the landfill site have suffered chronic flood. To prevent flood, we are constructing a 44.6-square-kilometer reservoir, which is capable of storing 7.22 million tons of water, at a total cost of 72 billion won in the compound of the landfill site. After completion, the reservoir will serve as a place for citizens to take a rest crowded with migratory birds.

Q: Can you introduce your state-of-the-art bad smell prior notice and warning system?

A:In an effort to prevent bad smell emitted from waste and create comfortable living circumstances, we have installed state-of-the-art, automatic bad smell detection device at three places, including one leading to the Incheon Airport Expressway. When a bad smell modeling system is added to the device in the first half of next year, the scheme will offer real-time information on environment to local residents. The device is capable of detecting and analyzing 13 kinds of materials which emit bad smell such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, in addition to wind velocity and the direction of the wind.

Q: Would you tell us about the corporation's management system?

A: We are pushing the establishment of an advanced management system equipped with flexibility and quickness, which is needed to realize perfectly hygienic landfill, to preserve cooperative relations with local residents and to implement the system of circulatory waste resource management on a systematic and sustained basis. We carry out our major management activities after holding prior consultations with the Ministry of Environment and winning the ministry's approval.

Q: People know little about the process of waste treatment, and the process of leachate treatment. Can you explain them?

A: The process is divided into six stages - entrance weighing (weighing of vehicle's total weight with wireless automated vehicle sensor); waste inspection (automatic sample taking on industrial waste and sampling at nine pints by machine - waste that exceeds the inspection standard is returned); unloading (transfer to landfill site and unloading, and joint inspection by local residents and officers of the corporation); spreading and compacting (fumigation to disinfect and deodorize over unloaded waste, and compacting of unloaded waste with specialized equipment to facilitate covering); covering (end of landfilling by covering with earth); and exit weighing (wireless automated sensor detects vehicle, and calculation of waste weight). The process of leachate treatment includes denitrification/nitrification (using the biological method with the denitrification/nitrification tank, the nitrate and organic materials are eliminated); chemical coagulation (elimination of non-biodegradable materials that cause COD after the biological treatment); Fenton oxidation (elimination of non-disintegrating materials by oxidation of chemical compounds produced by a catalytic chemical reaction between hydrogen peroxide and ferrous sulfate); and RBC (elimination of remaining organic material after the Fenton Process utilizing microorganisms that are adhered to the rotating film).]

Q: Can you classify waste by type and region?

A: By type, household waste accounts for 54 percent of the total waste brought in from Seoul and its vicinity, followed by construction and demolition waste with 23 percent, general industrial waste with 12 percent and household-industrial waste with 11 percent. By region, waste of Seoul accounts for 64 percent of the total waste, while that of Gyeonggi Province and Incheon constitutes 21 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

Q: What plans do you have to further develop the corporation and the ecological park?

A: To reduce waste, the government has introduced the Extended Producer Responsibility and Take-Back Systems. Despite these measures, the amount of waste is increasing in accordance with growing population and consumption. In addition, the Nimby (not in my back yard) will continue.

For the stable treatment of waste and creation of comfortable landfill site, a comprehensive waste treatment facility complex should be established. The government has announced plans to build an international financial complex, an air logistics-tourist complex and an international business & knowledge-based industrial complex and a special economic zone in areas such as Gimpo, Youngjong Island and Songdo near the landfill site. To meet the situation, programs for the system of circulatory waste resource management and the construction of an ecological park on the landfill should be implemented. We would like to request understanding and support of local residents to implement them. If our efforts and our cooperative relations with local residents are combined in a harmonious manner, the landfill site will be reborn from hated, abandoned land to environmentally-friendly dream-park in the compound of a special economic zone.