Article 2 subparag. 1 of the Waste Management Act provides that “waste” means any substance that becomes unnecessary for human life or business activities, such as garbage, annual waste, sludge, waste oil, waste acid, waste alkhs, and animal carcasses.

In full view of the purport of the Waste Management Act intending to strictly regulate the discharge of wastes that may have a significant impact on the natural and living environment and to improve the quality of the people’s lives, and the contents of the provisions of the Waste Management Act including the above definition as to wastes, the substance shall be deemed as waste under the Waste Management Act insofar as the substance such as garbage, tobacco materials, sludge, waste oil, waste acid, waste alcars, animal carcasses, etc. discharged from the workplace becomes unnecessary for the business activities of the workplace concerned, and it does not constitute waste under the Waste Management Act, and it does not mean that the substance discarded from the workplace concerned is supplied as recyclable materials (see, e.g., Supreme Court Decision 2001Do70, Jun. 1, 2001). According to the reasoning of the lower judgment, the lower court determined as follows: (a) it is unnecessary to conduct production activities in the production process of the E company (hereinafter “E company”) without any recycling facilities; and (b) it shall not be acknowledged as unnecessary for E company to sell such substance to the Defendant.

In light of the records, the above judgment of the court below is just in accordance with the legal principles as seen earlier.