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Jeju residents raise a stink over broken promise, blocking trash facility

Published: 09 Jun. 2025, 20:57

A trash car is parked far outside the Jeju Environmental Resource Recycle Center in Dongbok-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City, on June 9. [JOONGANG ILBO]

At 9:30 a.m. on Monday, a garbage truck came to a halt on the road to the Jeju Environmental Resource Recycle Center in Dongbok-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City. Unable to unload the weekend's trash, the truck eventually left the site.

“Because residents near the center have blocked the road, we haven’t been able to deliver collected waste,” said Kim, a 56-year-old sanitation worker. “For now, I’ll monitor the situation here and then bring the trash to a nearby recycling facility.”

Residents of Dongbok-ri have been blocking access to the Jeju Environmental Resource Recycle Center, a major waste treatment facility on the island, since Saturday. They began gathering at the site at 8 a.m. that day, setting up tents and physically obstructing the road.

With most of Jeju’s trash processed at this facility, the road closure is raising concerns about disruption for residents across the city.

The residents’ protest stems from what they say is "a broken promise." Jeju officials had pledged to support a project to deliver waste heat from the center’s incinerators to local farmland, such as greenhouses.

Residents block the path to the Jeju Environmental Resource Recycle Center in Dongbok-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City, on June 9. [JOONGANG ILBO]

However, the government said it commissioned a feasibility study in 2019, and in December 2020 informed the village that the project lacked economic viability. When the village again requested the project last November, the government responded that the waste heat was already being used for community facilities and that the supply was insufficient to extend to farmland.

“Dongbok-ri has cooperated for the past seven years to ensure the center’s normal operation, patiently waiting for Jeju to fulfill its promise,” said Kim Byeong-su, head of Dongbok-ri. “The government must either deliver on the original waste heat supply project or introduce a new initiative of equivalent value if the original plan is no longer feasible.”

As the standoff continues, residents are raising fears of a garbage crisis. In temporary holding sites across Jeju, waste is piling up and causing environmental problems. At 2:30 p.m. Monday, one such site in Jeju City had 20-liter (5-gallon) to 50-liter garbage bags stacked more than three meters (9.8 feet) high. A foul odor filled the area, and wastewater was visibly dripping from some bags.

Trash piled at a processing facility in Jeju on June 9 [JOONGANG ILBO]

The Jeju Environmental Resource Recycle Center in Dongbok-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City [JOONGANG ILBO]

Jeju has begun transporting combustible waste to mainland facilities via private contractors after first gathering it at recycling companies and storage centers across the island. By 10 a.m. Monday, 207 tons out of 469 tons of general waste had already been shipped out.

“We’ve provided 58.7 billion won [$43 million] in statutory and special funding to Dongbok-ri so far, and we will continue to support community-led projects within the legal framework,” said Jeong Geun-sik, the director of the resource recycling division at the Jeju Provincial Government. “We’re doing our best to normalize the situation as quickly as possible to minimize inconvenience for residents.”

The Jeju Environmental Resource Recycle Center, completed in 2019, spans 140,000 square meters and includes a noncombustible waste landfill facility with a capacity of 2.42 million cubic meters, along with incinerators capable of processing around 500 tons of combustible waste daily. The center handles an average of 153 tons of landfill waste and 376 tons of incinerated waste per day.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY CHOI CHOONG-IL [[email protected]]