Newsletter from China (5/9/2006)
1. Agricultural Pollution Control. March 21, 2006 -- Prevention and treatment ofagricultural pollution will become major parts of the environmental protection effortsof the municipal authorities in East China's metropolis of Shanghai.
Over the next three years, Shanghai's environmental protection will include
comprehensive treatment of large livestock or poultry farms, agricultural pollution
treatment and utilization of crop stalks, said a municipal agricultural official.
The city will build or rebuild five poultry or livestock waste processing centers andpromote the use of organic fertilizers and technologies to reduce the use of pesticides,
the official said.
2. Green measures to safely dispose of medical waste. February 25, 2006 -- Alarge-scale environmentally friendly project for the disposal of medical waste will be
carried out under the co-operation of the country's top environmental watchdog andthe international community. The project will cost around US$45 million, nearly halfof which will come from the Global Environment Facility.
Planned to run for four years, the project aims to reduce the production of
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) during the disposal of medical waste byimproving the current treatment facilities and establishing new advanced services.
According to figures from the State Environmental Protection Administration(SEPA), China now produces more than 1,500 tons of medical waste one day, and thisfigure is likely to rise. Experts say if SEPA does not consider the reduction of POPs, it
may lead to a serious pollution risk, especially in levels of dioxin. Currently, thecountry's treatment facilities mainly use combustion techniques. "However, according
to my investigation, most of the country's 171 incinerators for medical waste do notreach the correct standards for pollution control," said Wu Shunze from the Chinese
Academy for Environmental Planning. To solve the pollution problem, the StateCouncil ratified SEPA and the National Development and Reform Commission tocompile the "Hazardous Waste and Medical Waste Treatment Facility Construction
Plan." "Although we now have regulations on how to treat medical waste, there arestill many difficulties since the plan is not very practical or complete", said Wu
Yinghong from the Ministry of Health.
3. Taking out the garbage, 2006. -- With Chinese cities estimated to accumulated
account for nearly one third of all the garbage produced in the world every year,
disposing of this trash is becoming an urgent task for Chinese governments at alllevels.
In the 1980s, China began a campaign to improve urban sanitary conditions and has
been working since then toward this purpose. In February this year, the State Council,
China’s cabinet, issued a document on strengthening environmental protection efforts,
listing rubbish disposal as one of the eight major objectives of that program. The
amount of trash produced worldwide is increasing 8 percent on an annual basis, while
the figure for China is over 10 percent. The world produces an estimated 490 million

tons of rubbish each year, with China’s cities alone accounting for 150 million tons.
Currently, as much as 7 billion tons of garbage produced by Chinese cities remain
untreated. Disposing of the huge amount of garbage produced every day has always
been a headache. Government telephone hotlines get many environmental complaints
from residents each year, with the majority related to trash. The Central Government
spends a lot of money to dispose of garbage each year, and every city has its own
rubbish disposal center. But it appears that government efforts to clean up theenvironment cannot keep pace with the speed of China’s urbanization. This rapid
urbanization has brought a population explosion in cities, more skyscrapers, rapid
industrial and service-sector development--and a big increase in garbage.
4. Clean City. BEIJING, 2006 -- Beijing is making every effort to handle its
garbage in an environmentally sound manner.
At present, 94 percent of the garbage is treated to the point where it isenvironmentally harmless, but the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said thegoal is to reach 96 percent this year, 97 percent in 2007 and 98 percent in 2008.
Beijing has established complete garbage treatment and management systems inmost of the inner eight districts and outlying satellite towns. Eighteen garbage
disposal establishments have been set up, among which there are four large garbage
transfer stations, nine large landfill sites, three composting plants and two incinerators,
with a daily disposal capacity of 8,800 tons. However, compared with the 11,500 tonsof garbage Beijing generates each day, an amount that is increasing by 2 percent year
on year, disposal capacity needs to be increased. By 2008, Beijing is expected togenerate 12,000 tons of rubbish every day, for an annual output of 4.38 million tons.
Medical waste is forecast to total 60 tons per day and kitchen waste will amount to
1,200 tons. This provides a tough test of Beijing’s garbage disposal capacity.
Liang Guangsheng of the Beijing Municipal Administra-tion Commission said thisyear and next year the city would totally invest 10 billion yuan in building garbage
disposal facilities and it would employ a market-oriented management model. Onekey project will be a plastic waste separation system at the Majialou garbage station,
which will handle plastic bags. The plastic will be cleaned and compressed, and thensold back to enterprises. This new separation system will be the second of its kind inBeijing. The first one was set up in the Xiaowuji garbage transfer station and has been
operating for more than a year. Every day it can separate five to six tons of waste
plastic bags from 1,000 tons of garbage. The plastic bags, which previously wereburied along with other trash, can be sold at a price of 200 yuan per ton. Construction
has begun on the largest household trash disposal facility, the Asuwei Comprehensive
Garbage Treatment Plant, with a total investment of 270 million yuan. It is expectedthat by 2007 Beijing will have a daily trash disposal capacity of 11,800 tons. Beijing
also has adopted a household trash on-site treatment program, which is in the pilot
stage in 250 communities, including Xinwaidajie No.6 Community. About 1,000
families in the community generate over 1.5 tons of trash every day.
The trash is roughly sorted by the residents first. About 30 percent of the waste,
which consists of recyclable items such as paper and plastic, is transported to arecycling station, but the remaining 70 percent, which includes food waste, wooden
chopsticks, nut shells and even some tree branches or leaves, is processed inequipment that grinds and dehydrates the trash. It then becomes a powdery or granularorganic fertilizer after decomposition and fermentation, which is used on flowers andgrass.
It is reported that Beijing plans to set up another incinerator, two landfills andseven comprehensive disposal plants to meet its target for making trashenvironmentally safe.
5. Putting Waste to Industrial Use. GUIYANG, 2006. -- Phosphouus chemicals
are the backbone industry of Kaiyang County in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou
Province, and the Kaiyang Defluorinated Phosphate Co., Ltd is one of its largest
chemical enterprises.
Mineral plants generally produce tail gas that is 90 percent carbon monoxide,according to an official at the Guiyang Municipal Recyclable Economy Office. Since
promotion of the concept of a recyclable economy, however, scientific methods havebeen introduced to convert the carbon monoxide discharged from phosphorus tail gas
into a form of energy that produces industrial material. This solid production waste issold on as raw material to cement plants, an innovation that reduces waste disposal
costs as well as mitigating air pollution.
The Kaiyang Phosphorus and Coal Chemicals Eco-Industrial Demonstration Basein Kaiyang County has been constructed with the specific intention of establishing arecyclable economy through high technology. Similar trial projects in Guiyang, suchas at the Coal Chemicals Eco-Industrial Base in Qing Town, and the Organic
Vegetable and Fruit Base in Yongle Township, Wudang District are also underway.