Calls for Improved Handling of Food Waste-to-Feed Facility Decision

The Budget and Finance Committee of the Suwon City Council will submit a recommendation to the full council on the 9th urging rational new construction plans and phased policy changes regarding Suwon City's decision to employ a dried feed conversion method for the food waste processing facility being newly constructed in Gosaekodon. If passed, the committee plans to urge the city to implement the recommendation.

The recommendation notes that the dried feed conversion method decided by the city on the 21st of last month raises concerns that it was handled hastily due to time pressure, as the city must return national and provincial subsidies already received from Gyeonggi Province and the central government if construction contracts for the new processing facility are not concluded by the end of this year. The recommendation states that if the current design phase fails to address these shortcomings, it will only perpetuate poor residential environments for neighboring residents.

Key recommendations include implementing underground construction using advanced methods similar to those in Seoul's Dobong-gu if the feed facility is built, and securing adequate space in the new building for carbonization facility installation to allow for expansion once results are shown.

The recommendation also calls for accepting new carbonization technology once it receives Environmental Ministry certification (a matter agreed upon by all members of the Food Waste Processing Facility Special Committee) and hastening preparation for state-of-the-art pyrolysis and melting facilities already commercialized in Japan.

Regarding the pyrolysis and melting facility, Yangsan City in South Gyeongsang Province (population 220,000) became the first in Korea to issue a bid, while Yangju City (population 150,000) and Dongducheon City (population 80,000) in Gyeonggi Province are promoting the adoption of this facility in August as a metropolitan project.

The recommendation also includes designing and constructing the new processing facility using methods recommended by the Environmental Ministry's "Odor Environment Association" or advanced research institutes such as Seoul National University, holding resident briefings and public hearings, conducting environmental impact assessments, expanding cultural and welfare facilities for residents, and establishing relocation plans for odor-causing facility dispersal.

Meanwhile, the city decided on the 21st of last month to build the food waste processing facility using the feed conversion method, and plans to begin preliminary and detailed design work for the equipment this month, with construction contracts in December and project completion in August 2005.

The city visited a dried feed conversion facility in Goyang City on the 16th of last month with five Budget and Finance Committee members before hastily deciding on the equipment method, as any delay in this plan and postponement of construction contracts to next year would require the return of 5.2 billion won in subsidies, including 3.46 billion won in national and provincial funds already received and 1.73 billion won to be received next year.

The city chose the dried feed conversion facility because it produces no foul odors and has low installation and operating costs.