SOUTH KOREA : ACCELERATING A SMARTER AND SUSTAINABLE CONSCIOUSNESS NATION

Having recently visited South Korea, a country with a population of 51 million , with a geography equal to the south; the east coast is bordered by the Sea of Japan (known in Korea as East Sea). The 8,640-kilometer coastline is highly indented with some 3,579 islands lie adjacent to the peninsula, I was struck on a number of levels to Sustainable Consciousness that South Korea has been committed to.

WASTE MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP

Waste is a global problem with many countries especially developing nations continuing to refine in finding the right solution The first thing you notice immediately coming from North America is that there are no garbage containers on the streets, unless you are in a store, restaurant or hotel. Clearly South Korea is no place for Oscar from Sesame Street, as he cannot find any convenient spots to easily hide. You also see how clean the streets as garbage human sweepers descend in a tribe walking like an army parallel across large intersections, sweeping any garbage, leaves or debris to maintain cleanliness. Given its warm climate, this also keeps pesky flies down and hence maintain a cleaner environment.

DISCOVER KEY FACTS

Korea has the biggest rate of per capita garbage production in the world (2.3 kg/person) with the city of Seoul, alone, generating over 40,000 tons of waste per day including nearly 10,000 tons of domestic waste per day with each person contributing 1 kilo daily. In the city of Seoul, it has a population of over 10 million with a per capita income of $43,000. Putting this in context in the 1980s, Seoul was generating nearly 30,000 tons of waste daily. This was the by-product of a rapidly industrializing city. In contrast waste in Ontario has a waste problem; every year, Ontario produces nearly one tonne of waste per person and three-quarters of this ends up in landfills. Ontario only recycles 15 per cent of our waste and sends over 6.7 million tons to landfill sites each year. That’s 2.2 million tones more waste sent to landfill than residents are responsible for.

? Clearly, we have a major waste problem, not just in Ontario but in Canada at large.

? Canada ranks in last place out of 17 countries and gets a “D” grade on the municipal waste generation report card.

? Canada produced 777 kg per capita of municipal waste in 2008, twice as much as the best performer, Japan.

? Canada’s municipal waste generated per capita has been steadily increasing since 1990.

? Note: Facts gathered from Conference Board of Canada (2018).

So, what can we learn from Seoul’s innovation to waste management. Let’s look at a little history from their approaches.

In 1978, Nanjido, an island on a branch of the Han River of Seoul, Korea was chosen as the Seoul’s official dump site for its easy distance. The waste dumped at Nanjido a landfill occupying 2.7 million square metres for 15 years turned out to be the place overtime creating a mountainous garbage stack, rising a staggering 98 metres akin to Sri Lanka’s Meethotamulla. The Nanjido site was so hazardous there had been several fires and the overall danger and resultant pollution forced the closure of the site. At the rate Ontario is growing waste in land sites, we are one of the worst waste sustainable countries in the world, at present, ranked

In the early 1990s the city administration came up with a master plan for pollution control and landfill recovery project leading to the Nanjido Landfill Improvement Plan. A permanent solution was also warranted as Seoul was to host the 2002 Soccer World Cup.

The project consisted of four major components: (1) Gas treatment to collect and dispose of the poisonous gases; (2) leachate treatment to erect leachate vertical barriers and purify the contained water; (3) slop stabilization to management the environment around the landfill; and (4) a top soil covering to protect the top of the landfill with soil, thereby creating an environment for grasses to flourish.

As the waste decays, poisonous gases such as methane and carbonic acid gas are generated. These gases not only pollute the air but may also catch fire or explore. To collect the gas the authorities set up 106 landfill gas extraction wells and the extracted gases are transported through a gas collection pipe and utilised as an energy source for heating and cooling houses and the World Cup stadium nearby.

Converting 200,000 tons of waste to energy is equivalent to providing 41,000 barrel of crude oil energy 13,000 ton of greenhouse gases and planting 47 million trees according to South Korean officials.

Recommendations – Going Forward.

Through concerted and well planned initiatives and policies, Seoul has reduced amount of buried waste by 94% over the past two decades and recycling has been doubled.

Recommendations:

1.) Visit South Korea to speak their Waste Management Experts and evolve a more comprehensive Waste Management Framework and set of policies that all businesses must comply with, as well as citizen responsibility for waste management.

2.) Benchmark our Waste Management Sustainable Practices that track specific waste management methods that are leading practices. Engage in knowledge transfer bringing the experts from other countries that have learned first-hand to crack the problem, with more government exchange programs. There is nothing better than expertise that have successfully led and made it happen.

3.) Conduct an AI Waste Management Smart Applied Research Program that analyzes all the global literature reviews carried out of the health impacts of incineration, landfill, composting, land-spreading sewage sludge and sewage discharges to find the best practices, methods. This algorithm could be used to generate judgements about the strength and reliability of the evidence was applied using an algorithm with defined criteria. Possible judgements were “convincing”, “probable”, “possible” or “insufficient”. This is a use case worth advancing, as finding ways to educate everyone globally on Waste management is a very strategic priority for all nations globally to demonstrate leadership resilience on. Increasing knowledge elasticity, accessibility and predictive value for innovation methods can easily be solved with a global AI Waste management knowledge hub - connecting the global dots can be solved with AI. A solid use case for breakthrough social sustainable innovation, where AI can bring tremendous good and smart enablement to the world.

Closing Comments

Time is marching on and Canada is rated a D in Waste Management Practices, something I personally did not appreciate, until I visited South Korea, and saw how incredibly clean everything was in major city centers, side streets and in the country side. This recent visit in October and November, 2018, inspired me to write this posting.

It takes a major governmental leadership framework and inspection process to evolve our outdated waste management practices. We may need to introduce waste management tax systems to wake people up in Canada to stir up the impacts we are having on our sustainable environment. Clearly we have been failing for some time in this area.

Municipal waste management is expensive. Municipal governments in Canada spent more than $1.8 billion on waste collection, transport, and disposal in 2008, according to the Conference Board of Canada report. Countries like Austria and Belgium are also ranked as best practice countries for their approaches to waste management.

I think it’s time that we think very creatively to advance the Waste Management Problem in Canada, and there is nothing better than a consequence to all tax payers to send a message that we are not only falling behind, but we are severely impacting the quality of life for future generations, in terms of quality of air, increased health risks, inhabitable precious land reserves, etc.

Written by:

Dr. Cindy Gordon, CEO and Founder, SalesChoice, an AI Predictive Analytic Sales Company, committed to Making Data Speak for Sales Professionals to See More and Win More. Dr. Cindy Gordon is a also CATA Board Director, and an active leader advancing women in STEM, as well as a co-founder with CATA and IT World Canada, advancing the AI Directory Not For Profit enablement to connect market leaders together to advance AI. She is also a Board Director of RSI International, an organization whose mission is to advance the sustainability and resiliency of business, institutions and communities to thrive into the future. To contact her, she can be reached at [email protected] or booking a time at www.saleschoice.com