Municipal Solid Waste Management in ChinaThe total amount of MSW collected and transported was 148 million tonnes in 2006, of which 91.4% was landfilled, 6.4% was incinerated and 2.2% was composted. The overall MSW treatment rate in China was approximately 62% in 2007. In 2007, there were 460 facilities, including 366 landfill sites, 17 composing plants, and 66 incineration plants. This paper also considers the challenges faced and opportunities for MSW management in China, and a number of recommendations are made aimed at improving the MSW management system.
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StatisticsThe total MSW amount increased from 31.3 million tonnes in 1980 to 212 million tonnes in 2006, and the waste generation rate increased from 0.50 kg/capita/day in 1980 to 0.98 kg/capita/year in 2006. Currently, waste composition in China is dominated by a high organic and moisture content, since the concentration of kitchen waste in urban solid waste makes up the highest proportion (at approximately 60%) of the waste stream.
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Problems
The economics of China has been growing in an incredible rate in the last 60 years, and the development in its economy also lifted up its amount of municipal solid waste. China's urbanization, population growth and rapid growth in GDP will keep raising the demand in energy and resources, so the amount of MSW will have to keep increasing. Currently, many problems have occurred especially in middle and small sized cities, in waste collection, waste sorting, recycling. Therefore, the development in MSW management is necessary to solve the present problems of pollution and improve the energy efficiency from waste handling. - Pre-treatment - Waste incineration - Private-owned - Mechanisms & subsidy - Public awareness - Waste hierarchy |
Method of Waste Handling
Mixed collection is the most used way for waste collection in China, no matter in the big, middle, and small cities, which is very hard for the waste treatment. That is also the main reason why the number of the equipments for waste treatment is increased annually, but it still could not meet the demand of the rapid increase in the amount the solid waste. Waste incineration is one of the important roles of waste management. If there is no space for the landfill in some cities, the incineration sounds the best way to handle the waste. However incineration could generate a huge amount of air pollution and poses hazardous threats to the environment and the people. The main problem in China currently is that the sorting of waste is not standardized. There will cause the serious secondary pollution if the waste is mixed before the incineration or disposal. In many landfill sites in China, a high amount of the recyclable materials is mixed with non-recyclables, which makes energy efficiency much lower than the developed countries, and is a huge waste in resources. |
Hazardous Waste in China
In 2004, more than 9.45 million tons of hazardous waste were produced in China alone. With rapid economic development, the quantity of solid waste continues to dramatically increase. As hazardous waste has toxic, reactive, flammable, corrosive and infectious properties, it poses a direct hazard to both human and environmental health, making it arguably the most important aspect of solid waste management. Of the total hazardous waste generated, 40 percent was produced by the chemical materials and products industry. The majority of hazardous waste consists of waste alkali, waste acid, inorganic fluoride waste, copper waste, and inorganic cyanide waste. In total, 44% of this hazardous waste was recycled, 27% was stored, 13.5% was treated and disposed of, and 15.4% was discharged into the environment untreated. Overall, solid waste management has become a huge challenge to China, but with the growing number of laws and international assistance there are many opportunities to strengthen its management and better protect the environment. |