BETWEEN MEMORY AND AMNESIA: Seoul’s Nanjido Landfill, 1978–1993

Nanjido, best known as the site of the stadium for the 2002 World Cup, is often praised as a successful landfill reclamation case. A Seoul landfill between 1978 and 1993, Nanjido was transformed from an “island of triple abundance (삼다 도)” (i.e., dust, odors, and flies) into an ecological park. While Nanjido was material testimony to the “rapid growth that overlooked environmental degradation,” it was also home to thousands of waste pickers and a venue for vari ous illicit businesses related to the disposal process.¹ All these aspects—waste piled outdoors, ramshackle shanties, gangs blackmailing garbage haulers in a city-run