Toward Safe Treatment of Municipal Solid Wastes in China’s Urban Areas

Abstract

M solid waste management (MSWM) in China warrants particular attention as China has become the largest municipal solid waste (MSW) generator in the world. Until the end of 2010, total amount of MSW reached 221 million tons in Chinese urban areas, in which 63.5% had been safely treated and disposed. Urbanization, population growth, and industrialization are three key reasons behind the large magnitude of China’s increase in total waste generation. In order to achieve sustainable MSWM, the Chinese government released a national plan within its 12th five-year plan (2011− 2015) on April 19th 2012, targeting safe treatment of MSW in Chinese urban areas. The main objective of this plan is to construct necessary infrastructure for safe treatment of MSW. Several missions will be completed during 2011−2015. First of all, many new waste treatment and final disposal facilities will be constructed (with a budget of 173 billion RMB), particularly incinerators and landfills, so that the increased daily treatment capacity can reach 0.58 million tons. Due to different geographical and economic situations, while incinerators will be encouraged in the more populated east China, landfills will be encouraged in the less populated west China. Second, MSW transfer systems (with a budget of 35.1 billion RMB) will be constructed in all urban areas (urban population more than 30 000) with an increased daily capacity of 0.457 million tons. All the MSW will be delivered and transferred by using trucks with closed containers and compressors so that secondary pollution can be avoided. Advanced technologies on Internet of things will be developed in order to optimize the route of MSW deliveries. Third, existing MSW facilities will be updated (with a budget of 21.1 billion RMB for 1882 projects), such as constructing new leachate treatment facilities in existing landfills, recovering methane from existing landfills for power generation, and safely closing those landfills that have reached their designed life cycles. For those areas where land values are higher or incinerators are available, local governments are encouraged to redevelop the existing landfills so that metals can be collected and reused/recycled, wastes with higher caloric values can be burned and composting matters from organic wastes can be used for landscape purpose. Fourth, source separation for all the MSWs will be fully promoted (with a budget of 21 billion RMB). Each province should select at least one city within its territory to initiate source separation project so that related experiences can be shared by other cities. Based upon community waste collection stations, a regional waste collection network and waste market should be established so that those valuable wastes can be collected and traded, rather than flowing into landfills or incinerators. Related facilities will be constructed, such as preparing different garbage bags, trash bins, garbage separation centers, and garbage trucks for different wastes. Capacity building programs will also be promoted so that best practices can be implemented by the general public. In addition, special hazardous and toxic waste (HTW) treatment facilities will be constructed so that those HTWs can be safely handled, such as used batteries, discarded fluorescent tubes, mercury-based thermometers, and paints. Fifth, kitchen wastes will be asked to be separated from other wastes in all units (including households) at source sites and then be delivered to special sites by specially designed trucks for resourcification (with a budget of 10.9 billion RMB). All the collected kitchen wastes are required to be registered by local governments in order to avoid illegal collection and treatment. Resourcification options include composting, making biofuels, recovering methane, and mixed treatment with other degradable organic wastes. Finally, monitoring system for MSW will be established (with a budget of 2.5 billion RMB), such as online monitoring facilities in all the incinerators and landfills so as to avoid illegal emissions. In order to realize these missions, both policies and evaluation indicators have been prepared. While preferable policies are raised to encourage the successful implementation of this plan, such as improved MSWM regulations, the