Hangzhou Tianziling Waste Disposal Center Site Visit at NEW ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT DIGEST

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.

The facility pictured below is Hangzhou Tianziling Waste Disposal Center (杭州市天子令废弃物处理场). It is Hangzhou’s only operating municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill. Built in 1991 by the city of Hangzhou and partially funded by a World Bank loan, it was China’s first landfill built to national sanitation standards, including leachate treatment; and was the first landfill in China equipped with a biogas capture, purification and electricity production system. Because it served as a testing ground for new technologies, it received the support of the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China, also known as the 863 Program, one of the Central government’s most strategic technology development programs.

The Tianziling landfill gas to electricity project is currently in the initial period of an 18 year contract. In May 2007, the first phase of the landfill, which had reached capacity, was closed and capped. Using two 970 KWh gas engines, electricity generation began in 2008. By 2010, the plant had generated 166 million kWh of energy, according to a report by the project’s implementing partner, Veolia Environment.

Tianziling remains an operating landfill, accepting about 3,400 tons of MSW daily. The second phase is the last usable waste disposal area, not only at the Tianziling facility but also in all of Hangzhou. When Hangzhou Environment Group (HEG), the company responsible for operating the plant, initiated the second phase of Tianziling, they estimated that the second phase would be able to accept MSW for 26 years, until 2033. Due to rapidly rising volumes of MSW in Hangzhou — in recent year, as high as 17% annually, almost double the national average — the company’s 2009 re-assessment revealed that the entire landfill will not be able to accept waste past 2019, if not before.

As such, Hangzhou Municipal Government, like many other cities in China, is scrambling to find ways to combat a growing waste problem: from addressing waste generation at the source to building the needed infrastructure for treatment and disposal. This topic will be examined in greater detail in a future post.

Tianziling recently earned another “first in China” accolade for its conversion of the first phase landfill into an ecological park (天子岭生态公园). Construction of the park began late 2008 and ended in 2010, at which time the park opened to the public. Stretching over 80,000 square meters, the park has several paths and extensive plant life. I even saw a frog the size of my thumbnail make his way across the grass (frogs are famous “stress tests” for the environment; and the smaller they are, the more they cannot tolerate pollution).

The HEG representative reported that the park had had 10,000 visitors since opening; though, on the day I visited (a so-called “open day”), there was nary a soul to be found. I inquired as to whether there was any free transportation to the park, since its quite far from the city center, and he said no. Perhaps this is the reason there were not more visitors when I toured. Also, I got the sense that even on “open days,” interested schools and residents need to make advance arrangements to visit, rather than just showing up at the gate. I guess different countries have different definitions when it comes to what constitutes “public park.” Nevertheless, the atmosphere was extremely pleasant and the landscape rather lush. Morphing it into a more genuinely public space seems like a natural and cost-effective way to engage the public on the importance of sustainable waste management and raise awareness on the individual responsibility to do their part by reducing waste.

Towards those goals, I was impressed to see HEG’s efforts to educate visitors in a multimedia hall outfitted with all kinds of snazzy educational tools for visitors aged 3 to 93. HEG has made no attempt to cover up the dire truth about garbage. The introductory video at the exhibition hall’s entrance even depicted “An Inconvenient Truth” to make its message that the world is in crisis and we all need to start doing more about it. When it comes to tone and content, HEG has hit all the bases. This aspect alone, if nothing else, is hugely encouraging; especially considering a general paucity of substantive public education tools in China on sustainable waste management, and even sustainable development in general.

Though Tianziling Waste Disposal Center and Ecological Park may never achieve the fame or public adoration of West Lake, it is nevertheless an interesting and worthy, if somewhat strange, tourist destination!