In 2018, the Korean government introduced a landfill levy under the Framework Act on Resource Circulation. This was a fiscal measure to ensure that landfill waste disposal is priced so as to reflect its environmental cost and to help promote more sustainable waste management. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the landfill levy as a landfill policy instrument in Korea. In this study, a literature survey was conducted on the existing theoretical and empirical insights to the effectiveness of landfill taxes, including experiences in several EU countries. This survey shows that if landfill taxes are to be effective in terms of reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, the tax rate should be put at a fairly high level. It should be noted that the landfill tax rates should be set based on the external cost of landfill disposal. In addition, it appears that the landfill tax has not significantly affected generated waste per capita in the EU. The landfill tax can result in negative effects. Due to the reduction of waste sent to landfills, there is a risk that landfill operators will not be able to fulfil their financial obligations for closure and aftercare. Additionally, after closure and construction of the surface sealing, the emissions potential of the waste body remains more or less constant, resulting in the extended time-scale and uncertain funding of the post-closure period. This is a problem applicable to most landfills that contain inorganic waste. Thus, landfill operators should be stimulated by means of appropriate regulations to stabilize the waste body as much as possible to guarantee the lowest possible emission potential. This requires financial incentives, which are implemented to encourage operators to actively advance the stabilization of landfill waste.
This study analyzed whether there are mediating effects of government policies between the inputs and the economic performances of Korean bioenergy companies-this was accomplished by applying a mediating analysis by PROCESS Macro ver 2.16.3 (Hayes, 2013) based on a survey from the bioenergy companies. The analysis found that the increase in inputs of the Korean bioenergy companies affected the increase of performance through the government policies. In addition, comparing the mediating effects of detailed policies, this study found that said effects were greater in the order of RPS(Renewable Portfolio Standard) > the price variation of electricity = the obligation of greenhouse gas reduction > the changes in business scale based on RPS·RFS(Renewable Fuel Standard). However, it was found that the price variation of transportation fuels and RFS did not make a significant difference. There are two political implications of this study. First, to enhance the economic performance of bioenergy companies, the Korean government should keep the expanding trend of the current RPS. Second, the government needs to emphasize the importance of biofuels for transportation and make policies to develop related industries.
In this study, the internal phenomena that occur during cake filtration, expression and hindered sedimentation were calculated and experimented using the ‘unified theory on solid-liquid separation’ with new boundary conditions. The expression procedure, the variation of pressure distribution in a compressible and incompressible cake were calculated. The procedure of hindered sedimentation was calculated with the new boundary conditions from ‘unified theory on solidliquid separation’ and experiments against various concentration.
A comprehensive water budget analysis considering the water consumed for landfill gas formation was performed for Sudokwon Landfill Site 2 (LS2) from October 2000 through December 2016. The weighted average mole ratios of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) of the total disposed waste were 30.4%, 48.8%, and 20.8% respectively. The total emitted H and O as CO2 and CH4 from landfill gas was 2,812×103 Mg, of which 28.6% (803×103 Mg) was supplied from water. The total emitted water quantity consisted of landfill gas at 8.4%, leachate at 90.2%, and vapor in landfill gas at 1.4%. The total supplied water quantity to LS2 was 22.0×106 Mg, and the quantity supplied from water included in disposed waste was 62.9%. Considering the supplied and emitted water quantity, the retained quantity in LS2 was estimated to be 12×106 Mg, and the emitted and retained quantities were 43.3% and 56.7%, respectively. Considering the retained quantity, the water content in LS2 was estimated to be 26.0%, far below the optimum level for landfill site stabilization.
The purpose of this study was to verify safe and environmentally-sound recycling of blast-furnace slag in the cement industry. This was accomplished by analyzing the heavy metal contents of three kinds of raw materials: blast-furnace slag, Portland cement, and the substitutes, which were mainly input into the manufacture of cement. The research revealed that, in the five samples tested, the heavy metal level in the blast-furnace slag cements (5.90 ~ 8.38 mg/kg for Cr6+) is lower than the ordinary Portland cement (11.04 ~ 14.92 mg/kg for Cr6+). This suggests that both raw materials have low heavy metal contents compared with the 20 mg/kg limit enforced by the autonomic convention in Korea. As for the substitutes, there was no decisive effect on the overall heavy metal content because of the low input ratio of 2.5%. Therefore, it is of high utility value to recycle the blast-furnace slag in the cement industry, considering slag can dilute the overall heavy metal contents in the cement products.
Landfill and incineration tax was introduced in 2018 to reduce waste and promote recycling. However, there is a debate about tax rate. An analysis of the external effects of waste-treatment facilities is necessary, but first, an analysis of direct costs (construction, operation) is compulsory and must be conducted precisely. This study analyzed factors that affect operating cost. Ultimately, an estimation of annual operating cost was achieved by applying a multiple regression analysis to the previously-recorded data from 33 incineration facilities and 199 reclamation facilities. The results showed that incineration operating cost is affected by capacity, capacity utilization rate, and use of electricity. Annual landfill amount, area, and leachate treatment affect landfill operating cost, as well. The coefficient of determination is 0.6 or higher. Significance and collinearity between independent variables is at an acceptable level.
There was an issue of marine pollution in 2016 when a power plant located on the shoreline directly discharged hazardous chemicals into the sea. The power plant was accused of breaking the laws of the Marine Environment Management Act by a citizen and environmental organization in Korea. Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MoF) claimed the power plant discharged dimethylpolysiloxane, which is regulated as a noxious liquid substance by MARPOL73/78. Dimethylpolysiloxane (PDMS) is normally used to reduce the formation of foam in the cooling system during the washing process, and the plant’s flow of discharge wastewater is connected to the sea, directly. The aim of this study was to research the possible effects on the industry when the laws are applied to all industrial facilities along the shoreline. The smallto medium-sized companies can be affected by financial duties tied to complying with the law. This study investigated how to treat and discharge waste containing hazardous chemicals from a facility, focusing especially on power plants and companies along the shoreline. Direct or indirect discharges of waste from these facilities may cause marine pollution and are major sources of ecocide. However, there is no standard to apply to noxious liquid substances and no one knows whether or not the power plant is in the scope of the marine facilities of that law. Therefore, the government must manage industrial waste efficiently, with proper policies and regulations. Furthermore, it needs to create reasonable standards related to discharging industrial waste.
This study investigated the concentration of heavy metals in blast-furnace slag cement by changing the content ratio between blast-furnace slag and ordinary Portland cement for the safe recycling of blast-furnace slag in the cement industry. The analysis of the three main materials of the cement (ordinary Portland cement, blast-furnace slag, and the alternative raw materials), resulted in the ordinary Portland cement having the highest concentration of heavy metals. Also, it is concluded that the heavy metal content of blast-furnace slag cement is mainly attributed to the content of ordinary Portland cement. As the content of furnace slag during the manufacture of cement increases, the overall heavy metal content of the furnace slag cement becomes low. This was highly evaluated as a resource in the cement-production process, in respect of the effective recycling of resources and the safe management of hazardous materials.
National statistics of solid waste indicate that, although the amount of combustible wastes from household sectors is decreasing, the amount of waste that is buried in landfills increases each year. And the increasing rate of combustible wastes from industrial sectors is higher than the decreasing rate of combustible wastes from household sectors. Combustible waste, once screened, can be used as a potential energy resource contributing to resource circulation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to predict the amount of waste materials to be recovered and recycled by landfill mining and reclamation (LFMR), based on material flow analysis for four existing landfills. In this study, the landfills analyzed by material flow analysis were classified into types 1 to 4 by considering the status of the landfill and incineration situation. In order to perform material flow analysis, volume increase rate and bulk density were applied to the methodology employed in previous studies. In addition, material flow analysis software ‘STAN 2.0’ was used for the analysis. As a result of analyzing the average value of four landfills, the landfilled waste was classified as 93.9 m3 (73.7%) of combustible waste, 9.2 m3 (7.3%) of incombustible waste, and 24.3 m3 (19.1%) of soil matter. So, 73.7% can be incinerated or recovered by energy, 7.3% can be recycled as materials and reclaimed, and 19.1% can be recycled as landfill cover materials based on weight. The results of the material flow analysis carried out in this study are expected to be used to predict the amount of waste materials landfilled to be recovered by the material flow analysis during landfill mining processes.
Global issues, such as resource depletion, reduction of greenhouse emissions, etc., have been raised. Environmental issues regarding resources and energy are addressed by various industries that provide products and services. However, industries related to the environment have been separated and controlled. Industries related to the environment exist internationally. The Initiative of the environmental industry is the same as the final objective for protecting the environment, but it is different according to the subcategories or indicators of the industry. In this study, the economic effects of the uni-materialization-related industry on Korea by using the inter-industry related to the pollution prevention were analyzed in accordance with using I-O methodology, reflected by a sector of I-O. This study analyzed the unimaterialization industry being specified as exogenous in order to identify the economic effects of the industry on other industries, using the 2014 I-O table data. The economic effects include production, value-adding and employmentinducing, supply-shortage, price-pervasive, and analysis of inter-industrial linkage. The results of the analysis concluded that primary metal products are highest in the production-inducing effect, whereas wholesale and retail trade is the highest in value-added inducing and employment-inducing effects. Construction is the highest in the supply-shortage effects, and other precision instruments are the highest in price-pervasive effects. Based on these results, although the unimaterialization- related industry plays a large role in intermediary products, it is necessary to promote investment in materials and components industries to increase the technological competitiveness of the uni-materialization-related industry that are still highly dependent on imports. Also this study has a limitation that draws economic effects of the industry related to exact resource circulation because of no systematic categories of environmental industries.