As Mongolian consumption increases, the capital, and its municipalities need a working mechanism to manage the growing amount of waste. Mongolia’s waste sector is in dire need of not only policy reform but also a new way of looking at waste and its connections to public and environmental health. In improving and modernizing its waste sector, Mongolia can learn from South Korea’s experience and adopt some of its models.
In Mongolia today, there are 415 illegal waste dumping sites, which include a variety of garbage types. Environmental and public health advocates are seriously concerned about the mismanaged waste, predicting major environmental impacts as well as diseases for the Mongolian people.
Records indicate that, from apartments to the ger districts, food waste makes up around 36 to 41 percent of all waste. The absence of separate handling for food waste is contributing to methane emissions in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
In 2024, the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development (MCUD) reported that the annual output of municipal solid waste was 2.9 million tons, of which roughly 17-20 percent was recycled. The ministry estimated, however, that up to 85 percent of the total waste was potentially recyclable, but the vast majority ends up in landfills. Because of this inefficient waste management, Mongolia is listed as one of the top 10 generators of plastic trash per capita.
Adding to the problem, hazardous waste – whether from laboratories, research institutes, industry, or storage – is often disposed of as general municipal waste. According to Montsame News Agency, “at least 6,250 tons or 1,600 thousand pieces of lead-acid batteries” – over 80 percent of all used batteries – are simply dumped, without proper disposal, every year in Mongolia. The health and environmental implications are enormous, Montsame noted: “Expired automotive batteries produce a variety of toxic substances, while only one small finger-sized battery can pollute 20 square meters of land or 400 liters of water.”
The Mongolian government and its municipalities have launched strategies to cope with increasing waste. The current government is implementing the National Waste Management Improvement Strategy and Action Plan 2017-2030. As of last year, there are 64 waste recycling plants and three landfill sites in Ulaanbaatar, of which two are considered sanitary.
Previous administrations have pursued other strategies. Mongolia implemented past plans such as Reduce the Open Burning of Waste 2015-2020 and the Food Waste Recycling Project 2017-2024. The government has also been implementing waste sorting and classification projects since 2017. Last year, in March, Mongolia’s first battery recycling plant became operational.
International organizations, too, have supported Mongolia’s waste management efforts. Mongolia’s first-ever sanitary landfill, Narangiin Enger, was built in 2009, with the assistance of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The second one, Moringiin Davaa, was funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and completed in September 2024.
It is also important to note that, in recent years, Mongolia’s waste management sector has had closer links to sustainable development and environmental concerns, thus increasing exposure to expert research and recommendations on day-to-day handling.
For example, the European Union’s Switch-Asia Program is one such initiative that is addressing Mongolia’s waste management crisis. The Sustainable Plastic Recycling in Mongolia (SPRIM) project brought a newer approach to Mongolia’s traditional handling of waste management by supporting waste segregation, green businesses, and plastic recycling at various administrative units – including Ulaanbaatar, Bulgan Province, and Khishig-Undur soum, a subprovincial unit – between 2020 and 2024. These local efforts provided a model strategy to further enforce sustainable waste practices on a broader scale. As of 2024, Ulaanbaatar can now process 44,420 tons of plastic waste per year.
Notably, Switch-Asia program’s research and advocacy of Extended Producer Responsibility in Law on Waste have been sought as a good foundation for regulatory enhancement. Waste sectors in leading countries such as the European Union, South Korea, and Japan are implementing its recommendations to varying degrees.
However, Europe is not the only model to consider. The Mongolian government must prioritize the need to improve waste management by learning from South Korea’s experience.
South Korea’s Experience in Robust Waste Management
South Korea faced a growing waste crisis between 1980 and 1990. Within a decade, policymakers turned the crisis into both a business opportunity and an environmentally friendly solution. Today, South Korea recycles 95 percent of its food waste, landfills only 13.5 percent of household waste, and has become a leader in finding innovative solutions to the constantly increasing consumer economy.
What made this possible was a combination of strict government intervention and increasing public’s awareness and support, altering the Korean people’s relationship to waste. South Korea is home to 52 million people, compared to Mongolia’s 3.4 million population. If South Korea could succeed, it is unacceptable that Mongolia is failing to handle its waste.
One of the policy turning points in South Korea’s waste crisis was the predicting the overuse of the Nanjido Landfill. When the government proposed to create another landfill, it faced public backlash, which forced policymakers to draft the Waste Management Act of 1986. The act was a foundation for many of the waste management systems and mechanisms that followed, and led to an emphasis on recycling in 1992. The mandatory recycling for 15 types of waste proved a game-changer. Today, South Korea recycles 50 different products and currently aims to recycle all electrical and electronic waste by 2028.
With supporting systems like the Deposit Refund System (DRS) in 1992, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in 2003, and Recycling Subsidies and Incentives systems, South Korea created an effective waste management system. South Korea’s comprehensive intervention changed how the country and its citizens handle waste.
If in 2001 South Korea had 418 waste recycling plants; in 2023, the industry has grown to 10,240 establishments in waste management services.
On the global stage, South Korea continues to be a leader in reducing plastic production, promoting green growth and environmental care. During the 2024 Bridge to Busan Declaration, South Korea has made green growth a national political priority and has become a leading Asian country in climate change.
South Korea’s zero waste strategy can also provide a solution to solving Mongolia’s waste crisis. As Mongolia’s economy continue to depend on its mining sector, different types of waste are likely to be present. Toxic substances like molybdenum, arsenic, chromium, lead, and heavy metals have direct contact with people’s residences. The dumping of these toxins in the streets will have a direct link to increasing cancer rates in Mongolia. Unfortunately, these unregulated wastes make Mongolia’s poverty even more pronounced and beg real-time action. Taking environmental and public health into consideration, Mongolia’s waste management is indeed an important sector that needs to be improved.
In Mongolia’s current situation, climate change, and environmentally friendly initiatives have received support from the highest level of the government, with President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa pledging to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. South Korea, being a strategic partner of Mongolia, can and should enter sectors that need innovative investment to solve protracted issues, such as waste management.
