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)
US a Clear Leader… in Filling Household Garbage Cans
The US is the world leader when it comes to the amount of garbage per person that we toss every year, throwing out more than twice the average Chinese. However, that pattern is beginning to change. In some wealthy cities in China, the average person throws out 3.3 pounds of trash per day, trailing the US by a much smaller margin.
New Policies Aim to Reduce Average Rates of Garbage Disposal
The Chinese government has introduced new policies aimed at reducing the average amount of garbage thrown away by almost 10%. Given the robust economic growth analysts expect to continue in China, it is doubtful whether China — as a developing country — can successfully decouple rising personal wealth from disposal habits.
Wasteful habits have already taken hold in China, and are made worse by lacking consumer and government pressure on upstream manufacturers to design products that have more recyclable content and require less material use.
Will China go the way of the US?
What about the amount of trash we toss all together?
TOTAL MSW GENERATED ANNUALLY
China: 250 million tons
US: 235 million tons
China Overtakes the US, in Total Garbage Production
Due to the fact that China waste volume is growing at roughly 10% annually, in recent years China has surpassed the US in total annual garbage generation.
At the same time, total waste generation in the US has decreased marginally in recent years. Following an all-time peak of 255 million tons generated trash in 2007, US waste generation fell 1.5% in 2008 and 3% in 2009. In light of this, estimating current annual waste generation at 235 million tons is a conservative estimate.
Where does all our trash end up? Are we able to handle it all effectively?
SHARE OF GENERATED MSW RECYCLED, COMPOSTED,
INCINERATED OR DISPOSED IN A SANITARY LANDFILL
China: 66% (140 m tons)
US: 100% (235 m tons)
China catching up the US, still has a way to go
All garbage in the US is disposed or treated in accordance with modern sanitary standards. Though the development of modern sanitation sector has a much shorter history in China, only beginning in earnest in the mid 1990s, the PRC has made great headway in this area.
Nevertheless, only two-thirds of total generated waste ends up in a sanitary landfill or a treatment facility deemed safe by the Chinese government.
The rest — more than 100 million tons — is either disposed in an unsanitary landfill or illegally dumped or burned.
How much trash gets recycled in the US?
SHARE OF GENERATED MSW RECYCLED OR COMPOSTED
China: 23% (58 m tons)
US: 34% (82 m tons)
Does China recycle?
A question I’m often asked, with genuine sincerity, is “does China even recycle?” It’s understandable that people, even those who have been to China or lived in China, do not realize that China recycles nor the extent to which they do. This is because recycling looks much different in China than it does in the US.
Recycling in China dominated by the informal sector
Instead of recycling bins in individual households and at the curbside, China’s recycling sector operates outside the official channels of MSW collection. The informal sector, though immense, is not organized in any recognizable way. That said, trash collectors more often than not have extraordinary specialties and demonstrate a sophisticated manner of collection and sale of recyclable material. Informal recyclers more often sell their trappings to a middleman than to the manufacturing entity that can make use of it as a raw material through reprocessing.
But make no mistake. The content is used and not wasted, and this material has a real and robust economic value.
Opinions differ on the utility of China’s recycling sector
Some call this a most efficient use of resources, in the sense that these workers are not paid to do their work, yet they can still make a profitable enterprise out of it. Many city officials in China do not agree, and hope to eliminate the informal sector all together.
Still others decry the processing methods used by private sector entities to whom recyclable material is sold, which often do not meet environmental standards, thereby polluting nearby air and water.
Imperfect as it may be, recycling in China is alive and well. The introduction of better regulation in industry and efficient and humane policies at the city level targeting informal collectors holds the potential to build effectively upon an already strong recycling foundation. However, that is not expected to take place any time soon.
What about composting?
Another question that green warriors often pose to me is “does China compost?” A perhaps more shocking and discouraging trend in China is the decline of composting in recent years.
Whereas the method of composting is used to treat roughly 8% of US waste, China composts only about 1% of its waste. This is down dramatically from as recently as 2001, when almost 20% of treated waste (not total generated waste) was composted. Interestingly, the composition of waste in most Chinese cities is still very suitable for treatment by composting.
Unfortunately, current trends are expected to persist for the near and medium-term future.
How much trash ends up in a landfill (i.e. the kind that doesn’t pollute surrounding soil & water)?
SHARE OF GENERATED MSW DISPOSED IN A SANITARY LANDFILL
China: 38% (120 m tons)
US: 54% (132 m tons)
China landfills a great deal of its garbage
Like the US, landfilling is the primary means of waste management in China. Most of the country — like the US — has the benefit of having large expanses of land, many of which cannot productively be used for other purposes like farming. When you add the amount of garbage dumped in informal (illegally operating) landfills or those that do not meet Chinese national sanitation standards, the total percentage of waste landfilled is much higher.
Landfills will continue to dominate waste management in China
By the looks of the latest rounds of Central government policies in China (the 11th and 12th Five Year Plans), landfills are not going to go away any time soon. Landfills have been declared as the most preferable option for waste management in China, barring overriding circumstances (like land scarcity, incineration-preferable waste composition).
No country likes to see itself as a dump-loving country. However, the current and likely future reality for China is one where landfills play as prominent a role, if not more so, than they do in the US.
How much trash gets burned?
SHARE OF GENERATED MSW INCINERATED
China: 9% (23 m tons)
US: 12% (29 m tons)
Despite much buzz, less than 10% of generated waste is incinerated
Proponents and opponents of incineration alike would have you think that the amount of China’s generated waste currently incinerated is a vast amount. Actually, less than 10% of total waste is incinerated in China.
In the US, where incineration has been a well-established waste treatment option for years, the percentage is only slightly higher at 12%.
Incineration on the rise in China
The main difference between incineration in China and the US is where the two countries are headed. Incineration has been in decline in recent years as a preferred method of waste treatment, while in China its deployment is trending steeply upward.
Incineration still not appropriate for many Chinese cities
Nevertheless, incineration is not yet appropriate for many Chinese cities, and it will not be for some time. Though the Central government has mandated that 30% of waste be incinerated by 2030 — a year so far in the distance to most Chinese officials that it almost holds no relevance — several pre-conditions (like changing the composition of waste, collection methods and household sorting habits) will have to change before that goal is either sensible or within reach.