Policy and Legislation for the Soil Utilization of Steelmaking Slag in Korea

by Keun-Young Yang

Publisher - POSCO, Seoul, Korea

Category - General Novel

In the past, wastes generated at the factory are mostly disposed to the treatment facility, but there are increasing the ratio of recycling of waste gradually, recently. In addition, the expansion of recycling applications has become more and more important, because of increasing the amount of waste according to the development of industry. Therefore, the recycling in each country is managed by their criteria. The main law that is applies to management or recycling of waste in Korea is Waste Management Act. However, the case of waste generated in large quantities, requirements for using the waste are more complicated as enlarge to use the grand-scale engineering for recycling such as road or embankment, especially. In other words, Korea's policy on waste recycling plans are underway to revise the direction that needs to be satisfied simultaneously not only the criteria of Waste Management Act but also the whole content standard of Soil Environment Conservation Act for managing the impact on the soil. Therefore, in the existing Waste Management Act, the recycling allowed by the law has been possible always without constraints if the waste has the content within the extraction criteria. But if this revised law will be applied, the effects associated with recycling for industries are expected because they shall comply with the soil pollution standards at the same time. In particular, the slag in the steel works is necessary a method for recycling a large scale because there are a lot of generation amount. In addition, the method of mainly recycling of steelmaking slag is utilized in large-scale embankment materials. So, if the amended law will be applied, it is expected that the recycling of the steelmaking slag as filling to soil is difficult due to the content of materials such as heavy metals, fluorine and so on in the slag. Accordingly, POSCO will be proposed to consider the method for recycling by evaluating the degree affecting the environment and ecosystem in place of method to determine whether or not recyclable absolute concentration to the Ministry of Environment, so we are planning to minimize the impact of industrial activities.

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