By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Environment has put the brakes on Seoul City Hall's plan to allow the introduction of food waste disposal units at apartments and homes.
As pertinent measures to the central government's plan to slash 20 percent of food waste disposal by 2012, the two have come up with very different approaches: placing garbage disposal units to homes or imposing a tax on waste generation.
According to the city government, the disposal units will be installed at the 538-household Purgio apartment complex in Dangsan-dong for a test run this month. It will be considered for adoption in other residential areas.
The waste disposal units grind waste in the kitchen sink and virtually liquefy it for safe flow into septic tanks, but not directly into the sewage system. At these apartments, separate pipes were attached to send the waste into water-purification tanks.
Such facilities are common in the U.S., Japan and other nations, but the Korean government is negative toward their introduction over concerns they could pollute water and block sewerage pipes.
Regulations currently allow local governments to install these units on a selective basis while most others dispose their waste based on the liter-rate system.
"The city government concluded that the system of collecting, transport and managing waste wasn't efficient enough," Choi Hong-shik, a city official, said. "If we can control the water quality - which is possible - there will be no problem. I believe that when the environment ministry authorized our pilot program, they also acknowledged this reality."
Choi said the installation is not only beneficial to the citizens who will not have to run down the stairs to get rid of food waste, but also local administrations who are pouring a fortunes into waste management.
"While the administration finances 60 percent of the waste disposal process, these units can halve the cost," Choi said. He said once the system is widely adopted in Seoul, future buildings could have such systems installed from the beginning.
Seoul city is planning to request relevant law revisions to the environment ministry no later than June this year.
However, the plan seems to be a far cry for the Environment Ministry, which officially announced a nationwide adoption of the liter-rate system for all food waste management next year. Park Eung-ryeol, the ministry official in charge of the project, said, "The ministry has approved the test run to see the effect of the disposal units.
"However, given the facts, it is hardly likely that we would allow the devices." The ministry is planning to announce relevant plans in a couple of months.
"We find taxation the most efficient and the right way to reduce individual food waste. There will be no change to this," he said.