Environmental Technologies Industries

Environmental Technologies Industries

Market Plans

South Korea Environmental Export Market Plan

Chapter 6 - Hazardous Waste

This chapter covers hazardous waste management and remediation of medical waste, hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and other hazardous industrial wastes.

Institutional Structure

Under the current legal system for environmental management in Korea, hazardous wastes correspond to “specified” wastes which fall under the industrial waste category. The Waste Management Act regulates hazardous industrial waste, general industrial waste, and construction waste. Currently, there are around 11,000 companies designated as hazardous waste generators, and 20 types of waste are regulated as “specified” or hazardous wastes, including sludge, industrial dust, organic solvents, acid wastes, alkaline wastes, oil wastes, paint and plastic wastes. In 1998, 53.6 percent of total hazardous waste was recycled, 28.4 percent was incinerated, and 8.8 percent was disposed in landfills.

Each discharging business is required to dispose its own industrial waste including specified wastes. The number and ratio of violations decreased from 812 cases (15.7 percent of total inspections) in 1995 to 354 cases (6.1 percent of total inspections) in 1998. In 1999, the Waste Management Act was amended to require discharging businesses to register the paths of hazardous waste treatment and to stiffen the penalty imposed on violations. Currently, 494 toxic chemicals are regulated by the Toxic Chemicals Control Act. Among these toxic chemicals, 22 chemicals are classified as “restricted” and 29 as “prohibited.” Toxic chemicals manufacturers located in designated industrial estates should be registered with the regional Environmental Management Offices under MOE, and other producers should be registered with the provincial governments. In 1998, there were 325 registered toxic chemicals manufacturers, 1,522 distributors, and 2,018 dealers. Manufacturing, importing and/or selling toxic chemicals are managed by the Toxic Chemicals Control Act, and discharging pollutants and wastes are controlled by the Air Quality Preservation Act, the Water Quality Preservation Act, and the Waste Management Act. Medical waste was loosely regulated by the Medical Act until August 9, 2000, when a new regulation became effective under the Waste Management Act. This new regulation provides stringent standards for collecting, transporting, storing and disposing medical wastes to a level comparable to major advanced nations.

As discussed previously, Korea’s hazardous waste management policy is planned and executed as a part of the industrial waste management. In line with the Extended Producer Responsibility principle adopted by major European countries, the Korean government places a greater responsibility on producers rather than consumers in managing all types of solid waste including hazardous waste.

In order to reduce industrial waste, particularly hazardous waste, MOE and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) have jointly enforced the Regulation for Reduction of Industrial Waste since 1996, which requires private industries to reduce waste generation through such methods as process improvement and recycling. This regulation applies to 14 industries, including chemicals, electronics, materials and transportation equipment, and over 600 manufacturing establishments nationwide that fall into these industries.

These selected manufacturing establishments account for only 1 percent of total manufacturing establishments designated as hazardous (specified) waste discharging businesses but represent as much as 86 percent of the total volume of hazardous waste discharges. Each selected company is responsible for establishing and managing the reduction plan. Various incentives are granted to those who are selected as “excellent manufacturing establishments.” Currently, 7 companies are selected as “excellent,” including three Samsung plants, SK Chemical Suwon Fabric Plant, and LG Chemical Chongju Plant.

Infrastructure Development

Hazardous waste discharging businesses can either have their own treatment facilities or commission disposal activities to contractors. In-house treatment represents around 25 percent of total hazardous waste volume of 2.2 million tons per year, and the remaining 75 percent is disposed by hazardous waste treatment contractors. Treating specified industrial wastes is broadly classified into two categories: a) intermediate treatment and b) final treatment such as public landfill and public incineration. Currently, there are 45 private companies conducting the intermediate treatment of specified industrial waste, such as incineration, physical-chemical treatment, and solidification. The combined daily capacity of these firms is 6,846 tons per day.

There are 5 public hazardous waste treatment facilities located around 4 major industrial complexes, and 3 expansion or upgrade projects are planned for 2000 through 2004. Between 1993 and 1999, approximately $183 million were invested in expanding hazardous waste facilities. The status of the public hazardous waste treatment facilities is as follows:

Public Specified (Hazardous) Waste Treatment Infrastructure (1998)

				*Capacity (m3)*
*Name*	*Location*	*Land area* *(000 m2)*	*Total capacity*	*Filled Volume*	*Remaining capacity*	*Planned expansion* *(1999-2004)*
Onsan Landfill	Ulsan Metro City	77	401,300	289,580	111,720	--
Kunsan Landfill	Kunsan, Chollabuk-do	66	73,400	33,150	40,250	366,950
Kunsan Incineration Plant	Kunsan, Chollabuk-do	(a)	60 tons per day	--	--	--
Kwangyang Landfill	Kwangyang Chollanam-do	110	106,321	3,381	102,490	749,171
Changwon Landfill	Changwon, Kyongsangnam-do	121	61,135	--	61,135	1,079,153
Total		347	642,156	326,561	315,595	2,195,274

Source: “2000 Environmental Industry Yearbook, Environmental Management Research Center, December 1999 (Original Source: MOE)
Note: a) Korea Environmental Management Corporation operates both a landfill and an incineration plant within its Kunsan site.

Market Situation and Opportunities

Separate statistics are not available to determine the accurate size of the hazardous solid waste treatment market as this category is incorporated into the broader industrial waste category. In recent years, the size of the market for industrial waste treatment plants and equipment ranges from $104 million for 1998 to $430 million for 1996.

Growth potential for hazardous waste treatment technology and equipment is enormous as Korea’s regulatory requirements on this sub-sector grow increasingly stringent and the environmental authorities adopt a more stringent stance in executing inspection on disposal activities and imposing penalties. For instance, a new regulation to manage medical waste has recently become effective. In addition, the Korean government amended and began to enforce the Toxic Chemicals Control Act in 1999 to conform to international environmental treaties and resolutions to effectively manage hazardous materials on a global basis. For instance, MOE plans to build a database by surveying all manufacturers, importers and users of toxic chemicals. The data will be used to effectively manage these substances in various ways.

In addition, Korea pledged to introduce the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program when the nation joined OECD in In 1999, the petrochemical and oil refining industries began to adopt TRI. The government pursues to expand this program into other industries. The Korean government is conducting an extensive survey on environmental hormones to prepare proper regulations and enforcement measures. All these regulatory and administrative changes offer opportunities for international environmental companies specializing in hazardous waste management.

Main categories of hazardous waste discharged by Korean industries include acid waste (638,634 tons in 1998), alkaline waste (427,087 tons), non-halogen solvent waste (339,666 tons), dust powder (271,888 tons), oil waste (256,569 tons), and wastewater sludge (102,082 tons). According to industry sources, Korea particularly needs hazardous waste treatment technology in the following fields: dust treatment using the plasma incineration technology, recovery of oil-spilled soils and landfills, extrusion of incinerated waste using plasma for large-scale municipal waste incinerators.

The following tables contain key data indicating the market and industry structure for the hazardous waste sub-sector in Korea:

Number of Hazardous Waste Discharging Establishments by Jurisdiction (1998)

Regional agency	Number of discharging establishments
Han River EMO Nakdong River EMO Keum River EMO Youngsan River EMO Wonju LEMO Taegu LEMO Chonju LEMO Inchon LEMO	4,123 1,265 759 707 745 2,257 299 731
Total	10,886

Source: “2000 Environmental Industry Yearbook, Environmental Management Research Center, December 1999

Number of Hazardous Waste Disposal Companies by Type of Service (1998)

*Regional agency*	*Collection & Transport*	*Intermediate Treatment*	*Final Treatment* *(Incineration)*	*Total*
Total Han River EMO Nakdong River EMO Keum River EMO Youngsan River EMO Taegu LEMO Wonju LEMO Inchon LEMO Chonju LEMO	83 15 22 10 7 8 3 13 5	45 14 12 2 3 3 - 9 2	6 - 3 1 1 1 - - -	134 29 37 13 11 12 3 22 7

Source: “2000 Environmental Industry Yearbook, Environmental Management Research Center, December 1999

Hazardous Waste Volume by Treatment Method (1998)

*Treatment Method*	*Discharged Volume* *(In tons per year)*
In-house treatment Contracted treatment: Recovery Intermediate treatment Final treatment Marine dumping Public treatment (landfill, incineration) Carry-over Accumulated storage	546,803 900,248 322,407 98,964 232,741 101,517 36,917 51,451
Total	2,217,215

Source: “2000 Environmental Industry Yearbook, Environmental Management Research Center,
December 1999

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