Waste problem still not sorted after 17 years
Print Edition
BEIJING was among eight Chinese cities chosen to test a new garbage sorting system some 17 years ago.
Almost two decades on, however, the majority of residential garbage continues to be sent to disposal plants unsorted, though the city now incinerates most of it to address its sprawling landfills.
Beijing still lacks a designated department to manage waste sorting, and relies on sanitation workers to sift through the trash and sell on anything suitable.
Xia Fan, founder of a recycling firm, said current garbage sorting measures “are outdated and taken for granted, meaning it is harder for many to develop good habits.”
In just two years, Xia’s company, New Living (Beijing) Information Technology, has signed up 200,000 eco-conscious households in Beijing, and collects a daily average of 15 tons of waste.
Using an app, users arrange collections of electrical devices, plastic waste, paper and clothes.
Xia said consumer goods account for 27 percent of all recyclable resources. If they are thrown in with regular household waste, Xia said, it makes recycling difficult.
Before the former bank clerk set up his firm, he worked alongside Beijing’s 160,000-strong sanitation team as they hand-sorted recyclable items and sold them to disposal sites.
During his time with the trash collectors, Xia said many recycling firms preferred to import foreign trash over purchasing it from domestic collectors, because domestic waste cost more.
From this month, 46 Chinese cities are required by the State Council to pilot sorting programs for household garbage. The cities are being urged to draw up measures detailing sorting requirements before the end of 2017, and recycle over 35 percent of recyclable items by 2020.
Even before the requirement, some local governments had started to encourage recycling.
From September 2015, south China’s Guangzhou has been imposing fines of up to 200 yuan (US$30) for anyone disposing garbage improperly. For companies, the fine can reach 50,000 yuan.
A dozen communities were selected to test waste sorting in Fuzhou, capital of east China’s Fujian Province. Under the city’s plan, waste will be divided into four categories: large waste, dry waste, wet waste and hazardous waste.
“Wet waste refers to food leftovers, which account for over 60 percent of all household waste,” said Huang Houxin, an environment specialist with the Fujian Environmental Protection Society. “A wet waste treatment plant will be built by the year 2018, when compulsory waste sorting will be promoted throughout the city.”
In addition to garbage sorting, new processes have helped address the issue of rural waste, nearly 64 percent of which is currently untreated.
Farmer Ji Cuixia, from Jimo in east China’s Shandong Province, said livestock and poultry waste caused her the biggest headache.
She said a new initiative by an environmental firm has helped, as it now collects and recycles her livestock waste.
Qingdao Southern Guoneng Environment Science turns the animal waste into marsh gas as fuel and biogas residue as biological fertilizer. Its plant can treat more than 400 tons of waste a day.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
