CHAPTER 3: CURRENT WASTE-TO-ENERGY STATUS IN KOREA
3.1 Background
The priority in waste management is waste reduction followed by the recovery of recyclable
materials through recycling and composting. Since not all wastes can be recycled, energy recovery from
non-recyclable materials takes place in the next best waste management option: waste-to-energy (WTE)
incineration [21]. Incineration using non-recyclable, combustible MSW as fuel is the most common WTE
implementation. Since the volume of waste is reduced by 95-96% through combustion [19], WTE is
highly desirable over land filling in countries such as Korea where land is scarcer. The incineration WTE
option is also important in Korea because it reduces the need for the importing of fossil fuels by
generating heat, steam and/or electricity in place of fossil fuels. The reality is that Korea ranked tenth in
total energy consumption amongst all the nations of the world in 2009 [23], but the nation’s energy
dependence is at 96.4% as of 2009 [22]. Because MSW can play a role as an important energy resource,
the Korean government has focused on building WTE plants and developing WTE technologies in recent
years.