Transformation of Landfill

Sudokwon Landfill Management to turn the huge site into amusement park

Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corp. is a unique company as far as its job is concerned as it deals with managing garbage dumps and landfills created from the garbage dumps in the Seoul area, the capital area of Korea.
The company is proud that it is the largest of such companies in the world and has been a vast contributor to the promotion of clean environment and welfare of the citizens in Seoul and its surrounding communities.
The company was set up in July 2000 as a corporation affiliated with the Ministry of Environment to hygienically treat all the wastes coming from various areas of the Metropolitan Seoul region and utilize them as energy sources and develop the area into a land pleasant for the residents to live in.
Sudokwon or Metropolitan Region has 24 million residents, one half of the total population of South Korea, and covers Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.
The Sudokwon Landfill is made of four landfill areas. The first one with 4.4 million square meters was completed in 2000 since waste landfill started in 1992.
The second one with 3.7 million square meters is being created with wastes brought in from the Metropolitan area and is expected to be completed by 2044.
The company has many patent rights on the technologies developed by the Landfill Technology Research Center of the company. The company is for sharing the technologies it acquired with even foreign companies in the same business. The company also has a plan to create an environmental
theme park named, "Dream Park."The corporation also will build a 24-hole golf course by 2014 so that it can be used during the 2014 Asian Games scheduled to be held in Incheon.
In addition, on the drawing board are such facilities as flower plantation, sports park, environment-promotion event venue, environment culture site and a nature exploration park.
In the future, the company will develop the Metropolitan Landfill Site into a "Dream Space"where nature and culture are alive and breathing side by side and then the company will return the facility to the citizens.
] "Dream Park"will be built based on a master plan drawn up in 2004 and the corporation has been engaged in building the park ever since, which projected to require some 240 billion won over a period of 20 years until 2023.
The company plans to secure funds with revenues from a public golf course to be built and operated by the company.
The corporation counts among its advantages in technologies are the advance estimation program of the leached water from the waste materials and the leached water treatment facility diagnosis program which could be used at the work site.
The company won a contract from Pakistan in 2006 to perform a joint research of the solid waste management in the Punjab area of Pakistan with the competent local authorities, and produced a basic plan for the management of wastes.
The company also provided training to Pakistani government officials on waste treatment. The company also signed an MOU with a number of countries on waste treatment including China, Sudan and Angola and are engaged in talks with many organizations in over 10 countries. The company will have many more opportunities to export its technologies and know-how on waste treatment as more and more countries pay increased attention to the proper management of wastes and their conversion into resources.
The corporation plans to invite officers at foreign embassies in Seoul related with environment matters to visit its landfill sites to inspect the waste treatment facilities and the Dream Park project in the hope that such visits would provide diplomats with an idea for increasing cooperation in the area of wastes treatment and improvement of environment. nw

(photos from above) An artist's conception of the Rescue Recovery plant of the corporation, which will turn the sludge and other waste materials into resources. Pakistani government environment officials after completion of their training at the corporation. An overall view of the 50Mw electric power plant that uses gas from the landfill wastes.