"Learning About Resource Circulation": Sri Lankan Delegation Visits Hongcheon Waste Facilities

【Financial News, Hongcheon—By Kim Ki-seop】Officials from Sri Lanka’s central and local governments and the UNDP Sri Lanka Country Office visited Hongcheon County to tour facilities for municipal waste treatment and resource recovery.
According to Hongcheon County on the 10th, Sri Lankan waste-management officials and experts visited the county on the 3rd to examine South Korea’s municipal solid waste management technologies and facility operations and share experiences. The delegation included nine people from Sri Lanka’s central and local governments and the UNDP Sri Lanka Country Office.
The delegation first received an explanation of the operating system for municipal waste treatment facilities in the audiovisual room of Hongcheon County’s basic environmental facilities. Using a flow diagram of the incineration system, officials explained the functions and operating processes of the incineration facility, heat-conversion facility, and air-pollutant reduction facility. The visitors showed keen interest, asking about the facility utilization rate, the energy recovery rate of the heat-conversion facility, whether operations generated revenue, and ways to secure funding for facility construction and operation.
They then visited the central control room of Unit 2 at the municipal waste incineration facility to examine the monitoring system used to check and manage waste input and operating conditions in real time. At the recycling sorting facility, they directly observed how incoming recyclables were classified and sorted by type. Finally, they toured the landfill facility and inspected the final disposal site. Through the visit, the delegation observed on site Hongcheon County’s entire waste-treatment process, from waste reception and incineration to energy recovery, recycling sorting, and final landfilling.
The visit was conducted as part of a capacity-building program in South Korea under Sri Lanka’s demonstration project for sustainable, low-carbon urban municipal solid waste management and resource recovery. Funded by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the project will establish waste-management facilities and improve policies in the two Sri Lankan cities of Gampola and Barangoda from 2025 to 2027.
A Hongcheon County official said, "It was an opportunity to share actual operating sites covering the entire process, from incineration and energy recovery to recycling sorting and landfilling, and to exchange our experiences." The official added, "I hope this will help strengthen Sri Lanka’s waste-management capabilities."

[email protected] Kim Ki-seop Reporter