The Seoul city government said Thursday it has finally selected Sangam-dong in the western district of Mapo as the site of its new waste incineration plant.
Sangam-dong has been chosen out of five candidate sites throughout the capital after comprehensive environmental impact assessments, the city government said.
Sangam-dong is already home to a waste incineration plant, formally called the Mapo Resource Recovery Facility, and the new incinerator will be built right next to the old one, it said.
The new waste incineration plant will be built underground on a 21,000-square-meter lot by 2026 and the old plant will be demolished by 2035 and be converted into a park, it said.
At present, Seoul has three other incineration plants -- Yangcheon in the southwestern district, Nowon in the northern district and Gangnam in the southern district -- and the four facilities incinerate about 2,200 tons of waste per day.
About 1,000 tons of waste that cannot be handled by the four plants is now being sent to a landfill in Incheon, west of Seoul. But the Incheon landfill will be shut down in 2026.
The new Sangam-dong plant will have a daily incineration capacity of 1,000 tons, compared with the old one's 750 tons.
Considering fierce protests from Sangam-dong residents, the city government said it will thoroughly monitor pollutant emissions from the new incinerator through the installation of cutting-edge automation and pollution prevention facilities and build various cultural and leisure facilities on the grounds of the plant.
Source: Yonhap News Agency