Waste facility hidden from plain sight: Union Park

Video by Yun Da-been

The average Korean generates a little over 1 kilogram of solid waste each day.

Multiply that by Korea's entire population, and that equates to nearly 56,000 tons of waste being disposed of in just a single day. Now the question is… where does it all go?

"The country's overflowing landfills and worsening pollution levels, in general, have made it unsustainable to freely dispose of our waste as was done in the past," Phae Chae-gun, professor of Environmental Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SeoulTech) said.

"But that means we have to build new incinerators, right? The problem is that nobody wants one in their neighborhood. You have opposition from both the residents and the regional governments. Not in my backyard, as they say. Given these negative perceptions that are entrenched in our society, it is difficult to get anything going when it comes to building new incinerators."

Amid public concerns over our conventional means of handling waste, all-new waste management solutions are now coming under the spotlight. Here at the Union Tower and Union Park in the city of Hanam, a new waste management facility has been constructed recently along with a number of amenities for nearby residents.

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