Disposal cost of 24 billion … international embarrassment’Uiseong 190,000 ton garbage mountain’ disappears

The US CNN broadcast reported the problem of a huge’garbage mountain’ neglected in Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. [CNN 홈페이지 캡처, 중앙포토]

In March 2019, an American CNN broadcaster’s coverage team visited a rural village in Danmil-myeon, Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. The reason was to report on the embarrassing scene in which a mountain was formed in the form of a tower filled with waste and other garbage on the side of the village. There were places where the height of the garbage pile exceeded 15m. CNN intensively reported on Lee Uiseong-gun’s’garbage acid’ problem along with the amount of plastic used in Korea.

A pile of trash made from waste accumulated in Danmil-myeon, Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. [중앙포토]

As it was introduced to foreign media, the’garbage mountain’, which was disgraced by the international community, completely disappears during this month. On the 2nd, Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, said, “In this month, the first month of the new year, we will remove all the garbage piles consisting of 192,000 tons of garbage.”

From June 2019, Uiseong-gun began to clean up garbage piles by spending 24 billion won in government, do, and armament expenses as an administrative agency. Currently, about 187,000 tons (97%) have been organized. The garbage mountain is made up of all kinds of garbage such as plastic, styrofoam, electric wire, vinyl, and scrap metal.

The garbage pile was caused by unauthorized neglect of the owner of Company A, which operates a waste disposal company. From June 2016 to July 2018, they carried 90 times the amount of waste (2157 tons) that had been approved several times across the country, including Seoul, Gyeonggi, Gyeongbuk, and Chungnam, on the site and left them unattended.

When the business owners and others made the wasteland without countermeasures, the military took administrative measures several times. Waste disposal orders and prosecutions followed and fines, fines, and fines followed. It even revoked the interim recycling business permit for the operation of the workplace. However, even after the cancellation of the permit, the waste remained. Each time, the company disagrees with the disposition and initiates an administrative lawsuit, suspends execution, and uses that period to bring in waste, increasing the amount of neglect, Uiseong-gun explained.

The odor vibrated from the garbage accumulated on the site of the 40,000㎡ business site. The smell of fumes from heavy equipment going to and from the workplace was added. It is said that neighboring residents suffered a difficult degree in their daily life. There was also a time when the pressure from the piled up garbage caused a fire and did not extinguish for several days. There is the Nakdong River near the business site, and environmental pollution was also a concern.

The site of the Danmil-myeon business in Uiseong-gun where the garbage mountain was located. Currently, a lot of trash has been removed, and the absurd trash mountain has almost disappeared. [사진 의성군]

Eventually, Uiseong-gun, with the help of the Ministry of Environment, began to clean up the trash by executing an administrative agency, and the prosecution investigation continued. Business owners who neglected a pile of trash were treated by law.

Hyeon-soo Kwon, the person in charge of the environment department in Uiseong-gun, said, “We plan to create an’eco-green experience site’ on the spot when we clear the garbage mountain. We plan to use it as a place of lessons to prevent the second and third garbage mountain from being created again. “He said.

Uiseong = Reporter Yunho Kim
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