News Roundup — 12-25 January
Some of the latest news from the wide world of waste: 12 – 25 January, 2012
CHINA
US
INTERNATIONAL
Shanghai Laogang MSW Landfill and WtE Plant Site Visit
- Construction Worker in Front of Sign Reading “Shanghai #2 Construction Co. Devotedly Builds Laogang Energy Reuse Facility”
The word Laogang might cause some confusion to China waste enthusiasts. Is it a landfill? Is it an incineration facility? Though the answer for now is the former, in time it will be both. I visited the Laogang waste mecca in Shanghai’s Nanhui County — some 60 km from the city center and neighbor to Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport — to better understand what is going on there now and what is soon to come.
A Comparative Look at Trash in China versus the US
How much garbage do we throw away per year?
ANNUAL PER CAPITA MSW GENERATION
China: 692 Pounds (1.9 lbs / day)
US: 1,565 Pounds (4.3 lbs / day)
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TALKING TRASH: Hangzhou’s Efforts to Make Waste Management “Clean and Direct” (Informal Sector Not Included)
Since 2009, Hangzhou has implemented a direct system of waste collection, taking rubbish from apartment units and other collection points straight to incineration or landfills. This was done both to streamline the collection process and eliminate small neighborhood transfer stations, long seen as a nuisance to residents due to their persistent odor and attractiveness to pests.
Shanghai Jiangqiao Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Plant Site Visit
- Shanghai Jiangqiao Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Plant
Jiangqiao Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Incineration Plant is one of the many incineration facilities in China that has become a target of public opposition in recent years. I took a look inside to see for myself what all the controversy is about. Check out what, besides a lost appetite, that visit produced.
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Municipal Solid Waste Management in China: An Infographic
For all the slackers visual learners out there.
KEEP ‘EM SEPARATED: Hangzhou Tries to Reduce Waste, Uses “Naming and Shaming” Tactic to Change Public Behavior
Hangzhou currently counts 8.7 million residents in its population. Each resident generates roughly 1.2 kg (2.64 lbs) of garbage per day, resulting in roughly 7,000 total tons of waste citywide daily. 100% of Hangzhou’s waste is treated innocuously, according to the Chinese government’s definition. This means it is either treated by incineration or composting, or disposed of in a sanitary landfill. At present, 48% of Hangzhou municipal solid waste (MSW) is incinerated, and 52% is landfilled; though that ratio regularly varies by about five percent.
Hangzhou Tianziling Waste Disposal Center Site Visit
- Landfill gas being piped to the adjacent electricity generation facility
Some NEEDigest readers have been asking for more photos of site visits to landfills and incineration facilities. I guess there is more interest out there in solid waste management than I thought! Though it remains to be seen how many people would actually subject themselves to site visits. As you will see from the photos below, and more to come, garbage treatment plants are not exactly pleasing to your olfactory system.
Secondhand, not Second Rate: How China’s Internet Marketplace is Changing Consumer Behavior
China’s internet marketplace offers it all to consumers, and nurtures the growth of the market for secondhand goods. Learn why e-commerce holds the potential to catalyze changes in consumer behavior in China.
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Chinese Scrap Peddler as Moral Compass: A Good Samaritan Parable with Chinese Characteristics
The web is abuzz over news of a toddler who, after being a victim of a hit-and-run in Guangdong, China last week, was left for dead by at least 18 passers-by. This is an unsurprising tale to people who have lived in China and witnessed public indifference towards suffering strangers.
KEEP ‘EM SEPARATED: In the Spirit of Recycling, Shanghai Rolls Out Household Sorting System…Again
With roughly twenty million inhabitants, and one of the highest per capita incomes in China, Shanghai has experienced surging resource and material consumption in recent years. Less obvious, but no less significant, are the accompanying disposal trends. Currently, Shanghai generates approximately 20,000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day. In most parts of the city, the daily per capita waste generation rate exceeds national averages and matches figures of industrialized countries such as Japan and Finland. Waste volumes are growing in Shanghai, and most of China, roughly 10% annually.
Composting in China: RIP?
China composted household waste for decades, probably millennia. An agricultural manual dating all the way back to 1149 AD includes written record of composting practice in China. Between the late 1970s and the mid-90s, when the waste stream included little non-organic material and modern waste treatment techniques had not yet entered China, composting was an encouraged and, with the exception of open dumping or burning, dominant method of treating household waste. Not only was composting economically efficient, but it also helped enrich agricultural soils and prevent pollution from waste.
KEEP ‘EM SEPARATED: Introducing Household Waste Separation Efforts in Chinese Cities
What can China learn from the 1990s American band Offspring? If you consider the lyrics of their hit song “Come Out and Play,” potentially a lot. NEEDigest introduces a new series looking at household waste separation efforts in Chinese cities, to help readers see exactly why, when it comes to garbage items, “ya gotta keep ‘em separated.”
TALKING TRASH: From Waste to Energy
Amy Zeng, Fulbright student and a fellow Talking Trash blogger, has just released a short documentary about Dongran Company. They are in the business of turning urban manure into biogas, an energy source that fuels the company’s facility while also producing organic fertilizer.
Learn how this business and, more generally, anaerobic digestion, is trying to break down (literally!) China’s growing waste problem.
(For our mainland readers, here’s the Youku link to the video)
The World Bank