Expected Multirole of New Age WtE Facility for SDGs and Circular Economy in Seoul

WtE offers an opportunity for “zero waste” by reducing over 90% of the MSW and yielding ash as a by-product and guarantees the minimum emission of pollutants into the environment.

by Dong Hoon Lee

The most preceded countries of circular economy transition with sustainable waste management are maybe affiliated to European Union(EU). Their key challenges are: (a) reduce levels of waste generation and (b) align waste management objectives with those of the circular economy for reducing environmental burden and reaching the overarching aims of a resource-efficient economy. Waste to Energy(WtE) facility is a waste management facility that combusts waste as a fuel to produce electricity and heat in high efficiency. It aligns with the circular economy contributed to shifting waste, especially plastic and mixed waste, from landfills to WTE as an intermediate stage of waste stream diversion from landfill to recycling. Recent WtE plants are more energy efficient 0.6 MWh per ton on average. These plants are nearly always located in or near residential areas and provide the small scale distributed power and the district heating. WtE offers an opportunity for "zero waste” by reducing over 90% of the MSW and yielding ash as a by-product and guarantees the minimum emission of pollutants into the environment. According to the World Bank report (2018) from 215 countries and economies, data on waste generation are very different by country and region depending on the GDP and regional condition so that the data are considerably dispersed not to be used for the scientific purpose in waste management studies because of inconsistencies in definitions, data collection methodology, and availability in each country. Whereas, the data collection of EU28+3(Eurostat) has a consistency in applying rules. So that it is reasonable to regard EU28+3 data as the small sample of the world for the statistically comparative study in waste management. The recycling and landfill trends have become stagnant while the waste generation amount has started to increase since a last decade in Korea unlike the EU. It means that Korea needs much longer time to circular economy transition and the roles of WtE become more important with GHG reduction, well-being, safety, and smart society. Among Localities in Korea, the most historical capital and biggest city Seoul is in the most serious dilemma of waste management because of no ways to increase recycling rate with scale economy and also no space available to landfill. The only way to escape this dilemma is to secure a new age WtE facility with the multirole to align the circular economy transition and to approach the higher SDGs and world happiness score society.

Keywords: waste to energy, disaster waste management, carbono neutrality, carbon capture

---

published: Korea Society of Waste Management, 11|2022
Keywords: Energy Recovery, Pollution Control, Korea (Republic of)