Current MSW Management & Waste-to-Energy Status

in the Republic of Korea

Yoonjung SeoEarth Engineering Center

Columbia University

Implementation of Volume-Based Waste Fee (VBWF) system (1995)

Waste situation in the Republic of Korea

Since the early 1990s, securing landfills has become difficult.

Public concern for a cleaner environment in the neighborhood

Existing landfills either nearly full or poorly designed/managed

densely populated in small land space: 49 million people (2009) in 99,392 km2

Korean government started concentrating on waste reduction and recycling.

The prepaid bags system requires waste generators to purchase VBWF bags

for all non-recyclable wastes

All municipalities provides free waste collection for pre-sorted recyclables (incentive to recycle)

Starting 2006, food waste segregation is mandatory (promotion to compost)

<VBWF Bags>

Trends in MSW Generation in the Republic of Korea (1989 - 2009)

‘VBWF system’adopted since 1995

Total MSW generation rate has declined by 35% from 28.5 Mt to 18.6 Mt (1989-2009).

The amount of MSW disposed per person has decreased from 2.22kg/day (1989) to 2.49kg/day (1991) to 1.02kg/day.(2009); more than decoupled.

19891990

19911992

19931994

19951996

19971998

19992000

20012002

20032004

20052006

20072008

20090

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

2831

34

27

2321

17 18 17 16 17 17 18 18 19 18 18 18 18 19 19

2.222.32 2.40

1.80

1.481.33

1.07 1.11 1.05 0.96 0.97 0.98 1.01 1.04 1.05 1.03 0.99 0.99 1.02 1.04 1.02

Total MSW generation Per capita MSW generation

Tota

l MSW

gen

erati

on (M

ton/

year

)

Per c

apit

a M

SW g

ener

ation

(kg/

capi

ta/d

ay)

45% reduction from 33.7 Mt to 18.6 Mt (1991-2009)

‘Food waste segregation’obligated since 2006

Trends in MSW treatment in the Republic of Korea (1989 – 2009)

Landfilling has drastically reduced from 94% (26.8 Mt) to 19% (3.5 Mt) of the total MSW generation (28.5 Mt in 1989 and 18.6 Mt in 2009).

MSW recycling and composting has increased from 3% (0.8 Mt) to 61% (11.4 Mt), and waste incineration has also gone up from 2% (0.5 Mt) to 20% (3.8 Mt).

19891990

19911992

19931994

19951996

19971998

19992000

20012002

20032004

20052006

20072008

20090%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Uncollected waste Recycling/composting Landfill Incineration

Waste Incineration Plants in the Republic of Korea

These 35 waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration plants were involved in

heat supply (4.4 million MWh) and electricity generation (0.2 million MWh).

(in 2009)

35 large incinerators (in red symbols), mostly using grate-type furnaces,

burnt 3.1 Mt/year, accounting for 83% of the total MSW incineration.

WTERT-Korea sister organization is being developed under the leadership of Prof. Yong-Chil Seo of Yonsei University, Republic of Korea. http://wtert.kr

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