Promoting Shanghai Municipal Solid Waste Disposal by Establishing ‘We Five’ on MSW classification

Wang Nuan

School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University

Introduction

In China, the municipal solid waste situation is alarming. According to a dedicated study by the World Bank, in the year 2004 around 190 million tons of solid waste was generated, the highest amount of any single country and substantially surpassing the waste generated by the US （the World Bank ,2005). With the fast economic growth and large population of China, the quantity of solid waste is rising at the rate of 7% per year. (People’s Congress, 2009). China has devoted considerable effort to managing its municipal solid waste(MSW). From 1990 to 2004, investment in MSW treatment equipment and infrastructure increased 21 times and over 30 times more MSW is now treated or disposed of safely (SEPA, 2006). But there is still less participation for the general public.

Recyclables in the household waste were recovered in two ways, (1) direct selling of items such as beer bottles, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, newspaper, cardboard and other plastics by households to announced collectors; and (2) separation and removal of waste paper, plastics, glass and metals by scavengers from the waste collection points. It is worth mentioning that, since 1997, all newly built residential communities are closed-managed by real estate companies and residential committees in China, and scavengers are prohibited from entering these communities. Besides, most of these private junkyards are insanitary, they gradually been moved to the suburbs. What’s more, youngsters often do not have the habit of selling recyclables to the announced collectors. Thus, there is a tendency that a relatively large fraction of recyclable materials flows into household waste and will either be landfilled or incinerated. Nowadays, most of the big cities in China has categories trash, but even my classmates (master students, major in Environment) don’t know how to drop the litter correspondingly, not to mention the other people.

So it’s time for us to extensively spread waste classification knowledge to the whole society especially to students. My solution is establishing a nonprofit educational organization. We share how to sort the family wastes to recycle and non-recyclable groups with every householder in Shanghai. And promote a better recycle system in every residential community.

The final disposals need waste classification at the first time

The great benefit of waste separation is reflected in the final waste disposal. There are four main kinds of final waste safe disposal treatment methods in China namely sanitary landfilling, incineration, composting, and recycling. No matter which kind of disposal method, the waste separation is the vital aspect for the final effect.

Landfills have been the dominant disposal method for MSWM in China. As of 2006, 324 MSW landfill sites existed in China and received 64.1 million tons of MSW, accounting for 81.4% of the total amount of safe disposal. In reality, landfills are often poorly operated and good landfill practices are not well understood (Rissane and Naarajärvi,2004).Not mention the large space it takes up which causes ecological destruction, the main environmental problems is biogas and leachate release to the atmosphere and groundwater, which are generated by the biological degradation of organic matter, and are serious concerns in landfills. If we separate the organic wastes in the first time from home ,these problems can be alleviated .

Incineration has been established as a thermal processing method for the combustible fractions of solid waste, and is regarded as the most promising treatment for China in the future. The purpose is to reduce the volume of waste requiring final disposal and to recover the heat released during combustion. In comparison with developed countries, the net caloric value of MSW in China is far too low for waste heat utilization and poorly suited to incineration because of the high concentration of foods waste and the moisture content. Although there has been pretreatment for increasing the heat value, for example, the original MSW should be deposited in the waste pit for five to seven days before it is fed into the furnace. But these methods still cost a lot. Only by classifying solid wastes when discarded can greatly help.

Also, several attempts are being made to establish composting as a meaningful processing technology for the bulk of the degradable organic fractions, an approach that supplements the agricultural industry with compost as a soil conditioner and reduces the organic load of landfill operations. Here is my experiment in Ningxia province of China in 2009(Fig.1): this is a semi-mechanized composting process, we collect the surplus sludge of a sewage treatment plant (the sewage is mainly domestic sewage), and add lime (a wastes from desulfidation plant) to adjust the PH. We constructed 6 ponds. Though anaerobic composting and aerobic fermentation for 10-15 days, we fertilized the final product in the field. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the product, we cultivated six kinds of crops: corn, tomatoes, potatoes, soybeans, onions and peppers. The final text showed that the food is safe for eat and we really got a big crop! The local people living around our experiment field all felt very interested in our methods, we taught them how to accomplish this process using their living wastes. In this process , we figured that the most important thing is still to teach them which kind of waste is recyclable and how can we reuse them.

My Solution to promote municipal solid waste classification

From the above analysis I conclude that education on household waste separation to increase the public awareness and participation rate is the most fundamental measure to enhance the effect of MSW final treatment effect. My idea is to set up an educational organization on garbage classification in every committee of Shanghai. This organization is mainly made up by 5 students in Shanghai Jiaotong University , we call it ‘We Five’. Our vision is to share the household waste classification knowledge in every committee of Shanghai.

Achieving sustainability in waste management requires the involvement and participation of all stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people and organizations having an interest in good waste management, and participating in activities that make it possible (Joseph, 2006).Our responsibility is to connect all the stakeholders including householders, community volunteers, recyclers and sanitation organizations together, we make every residential area as a unit ,the residential committee of every residential area is our base camp.

We will turn to the existing volunteer groups for assistance -- Shanghai Volunteer Group (SVG), they will be the propagandists in every residential committee. I have been in SVG for nearly one year. The registered volunteers are warm hearted, they are from different communities and schools of Shanghai, it’s convenient for them to serve in their familiar communities. There are now more than 300 companies participating in waste recycling in shanghai (Sulin, 2008) ,they are the recyclers for every committee. They can make profit in collecting the recyclable wastes of the residential area regularly. The environmental sanitation organization can be found in every residential area in Shanghai, they collect the non-recyclable wastes and harmful wastes for the final disposals.

The spirit of our organization is ‘sharing’. When one person has been educated on how to classify the wastes and has passed our check, he then becomes a teacher, we encourage him to share the knowledge with 5 friends around him. There are also incentives for those who have good ideas on better reuse of the wastes. I believe our coordination is conducive to the future introduction of mandatory laws related to waste separation.

1

Fig1. My experiment on ‘reuse of sewage sludge and desulphurization slime as fertilizer’

in Ningxia Province of China in 2009

Residential committee

Volunteers

(SVG)

Householders

Non-recyclable

Harmful

waste

Recyclers

Environmental sanitation

Incineration/landfill

For

recycling

Safe disposal

Recyclable

Paper, Glass, Metals

Textiles , Wood, Plastics

Education

Dehydrated

Food waste

Battery…

We five

Fig.2. Our operation system-education and source separation in communities

Table .1. Interests and roles of stakeholders in our operation system

nuaner

2010-07-18