On July 1, the "Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Regulations", which is known as the most stringent garbage classification measure in history, was implemented, and garbage classification has become a hot word that has exploded on major websites and street discussions in China.

Shanghai is serious about promoting garbage classification, and Chongqing is also accelerating its implementation of garbage classification. At present, the garbage classification system in the main urban area of our city has covered more than 1.1 million households in 43 streets and towns and 306 communities. The overall level of Chongqing's garbage classification work is in the upper middle among the 46 key cities in China, and temporarily ranks among the top in the west.

In 2020, Chongqing will carry out demonstrations of domestic garbage classification in 50% of the streets and towns and 30% of the administrative villages in the urban built-up areas.

Zhu Xinglong, general manager of Nanjing Zhida Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., has been performing "A Tale of Two Cities" recently. At the end of June, he had just attended the press conference for Zhida's selection as a Nanjing Gazelle Enterprise in 2019, and then took a "fly" to Chongqing Liangjiang New District to learn about the company's pilot garbage classification in Yuanyang Street, Dazhulin Street and other places.

Zhu Xinglong is a "pioneer" in the field of garbage classification in Chongqing. In 2009, he established the first private garbage classification and recycling station in our city - Chongqing Hengao Environmental Protection Technology Development Company. After trying garbage classification in the main urban area for 5 years, the loss exceeded 10 million yuan. In desperation, he moved to Nanjing and found business opportunities. The company developed into a Chinese garbage classification enterprise.

In 2014, when Zhu Xinglong left Chongqing, there were less than 20,000 households and less than 80,000 people in the pilot garbage classification in the main urban area of Chongqing. Today, the number of residents participating in the garbage classification pilot in the main urban area has expanded to more than 1.1 million households and millions of people.

From losing in Chongqing to returning to Chongqing to make money, the "garbage king" Zhu Xinglong's coming and going indirectly reflects the change from "cold" to "hot" in the pilot garbage classification in our city over the past 10 years.

In the past, garbage was exchanged for goods, and now intelligent garbage recycling machines have entered the community

Zhu Xinglong still remembers it vividly: in 2009, when he piloted garbage sorting in Jiulongpo District, he adopted an extensive sorting method of garbage exchange for goods - residents called, and the company's garbage sorters came to sort, weigh, pay, and take away the waste, and sent it to various resource recycling centers. In order to attract popularity, Zhu Xinglong also occasionally organized activities such as exchanging mineral water bottles for eggs and waste newspapers for tissues.

Ten years later, Chongqing's garbage sorting method has become more sophisticated.

Recently, the reporter saw in the No. 7 Banshan Community in Jiulongpo District that the community has set up an intelligent garbage recycling system. Each collection box is written with words such as "waste paper", "metal", "textile", and "plastic bottle", and it is clear which window should be used to put which type of garbage.

"Each of our households has a smart card. As long as the garbage is placed correctly, points will be earned on the card." Wang Lanfang, a resident of No. 7 Banshan Community, said that 1 kilogram of cardboard is worth 100 points, and each plastic bottle is worth 4 points... The community also has a points redemption machine like a vending machine, where residents can redeem towels, soap and other daily necessities.

Since the smart garbage recycling machine was stationed in No. 7 Banshan, the community has a garbage sorting instructor, and the accuracy rate of residents' garbage sorting has increased to 82%. However, many residents still question whether the sorted garbage will be mixed and transported.

This worry is not without reason.

The Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment once conducted a survey on residents' garbage sorting behavior. 59.6% of the respondents believed that "garbage is not sorted during centralized transportation, and there is no need to sort it out"; 34.5% of the respondents believed that "the progress and results of garbage treatment after sorting are not understood, and there is no sense of accomplishment."

Chongqing has made some efforts to address these concerns of residents.

In the Gangqiu Community of Jiulongpo District, the reporter saw that the garbage bins at the regular and fixed-point classification and delivery points of the community¡¯s domestic garbage clearly stated the collection and transportation time and transportation direction of each type of garbage -

Perishable garbage is collected and transported to the Jiangbei Heishizi Food Waste Treatment Plant from 9 to 10 a.m. every day; other garbage is collected and transported to the Chentuo Road Solid Waste Transfer Center from 9 to 11 a.m. every day for compression and then sent to the waste incineration power plant; recyclables are collected and transported from 2 to 5 p.m. every day and transported to the Chentuo Road Solid Waste Transfer Center; hazardous waste is collected and transported once a month.

"The Environmental Sanitation Group is equipped with 520 sanitation transport vehicles. Each type of collection and transportation vehicle can only collect and transport the corresponding type of garbage, and there is video surveillance throughout the transportation process." He Yongquan, chief engineer of the Environmental Sanitation Group, introduced that the group has also installed a garbage classification full life cycle management system in some communities. By tapping this intelligent system and entering the corresponding garbage classification card number, residents can learn detailed information such as garbage loading time, transportation, and treatment.

Pilots are easy but promotion is difficult. There are three major obstacles to garbage classification in Chongqing

In China, it is easy to pilot garbage classification, but it is difficult to promote it continuously, and Chongqing is no exception.

Many industry insiders believe that the participation rate of residents needs to be improved, the collection and transportation system is not perfect, and the classification and disposal are not thorough enough. These are the three major obstacles faced by our city in the promotion of garbage classification.

"The most difficult breakthrough in garbage classification is the source classification of residents." Zhu Xinglong said that the company used a big data system to analyze the characteristics of the population participating in garbage classification and found that residents over 60 years old accounted for 70%, and middle-aged people around 40 years old accounted for 10%.

Not only that, not every community can be equipped with a smart garbage recycling machine that costs tens of thousands of yuan. For example, in Yuzhong District, there are more than 60,000 pilot residents, but only about 10 sets of smart recycling machines are installed.

"It is a technical job to classify hundreds of types of garbage into recyclables, perishable garbage, other garbage and hazardous garbage." Mr. Zhang, who lives in Ranjiaba, said that he noticed that Chongqing has not yet developed an app or program to help residents sort garbage.

The difficulty of garbage sorting in Chongqing also stems from the terrain limitations of mountainous cities.

An industry insider revealed that many cities in China have launched a "bin removal" campaign to force citizens to develop good sorting habits. Chongqing has many high-rise buildings, and citizens are not used to going downstairs to throw away garbage. It is not realistic to carry out a large-scale "bin removal" campaign.

A set of data also confirms the problem of insufficient coverage of garbage sorting in our city.

At present, the proportion of households covered by the pilot project of domestic garbage sorting in the main urban area is 23.58%, which is lower than the average proportion of 38.3% of households participating in garbage sorting in 46 key cities determined by the state.

In addition to the front-end classification and delivery link, Chongqing also faces confusion in the back-end classification collection, classification transportation and classification disposal.

Integrating the garbage classification collection and transportation system with the renewable resource recycling system will help improve the efficiency of classified collection and transportation of domestic garbage and resource utilization. However, Fu Yuechao, a researcher at the Municipal Government Development Research Center, found that copper, aluminum, cartons and other high-value waste are "hot cakes", and companies are rushing to collect them, while old furniture, foam, glass bottles, milk cartons, batteries, etc. are ignored. "Glass, milk cartons, etc. are troublesome to clean, which increases the recycling cost. To recycle hazardous waste such as batteries and medicines, companies need qualifications, and it is difficult for general companies to take over."

Another phenomenon that cannot be ignored is that although Chongqing is at the forefront of China in terms of waste incineration power generation and restaurant waste treatment, with an average daily processing of about 2,000 tons of restaurant waste and more than 8,000 tons of waste incineration power generation per day, hazardous waste disposal is still a "shortcoming".

Data provided by the Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau show that there are currently 63 hazardous waste management units in the city, with a utilization and disposal capacity of 1.345 million tons/year. The city's hazardous waste disposal needs and capabilities have not yet been fully matched, and hazardous waste collection and transportation and transit storage facilities and equipment need to be further supplemented and improved.

43 towns and streets have carried out pilot projects to include garbage classification in the urban management target assessment

With Shanghai's tough measures for garbage classification, major cities in China are "dancing to the smell of garbage", and Chongqing is also actively preparing for the test of garbage classification.

"This year, 43 streets and towns in the main urban area have piloted garbage classification, accounting for 47% of the total number of streets and towns." A person from the Municipal Urban Management Bureau revealed that in order to promote garbage classification, our city has implemented the "Chongqing Municipal Domestic Waste Classification Management Measures" since January this year, requiring transportation units to refuse transportation if they find that the placement and collection of domestic garbage do not meet the classification requirements and refuse to rectify them.

At the same time, our city has established a "monthly secret inspection, quarterly evaluation" and "monthly report, quarterly notification" system, and each district in the main city has a classification work leading group or joint meeting system. The Municipal Urban Management Bureau also conducts secret visits and special law enforcement actions from time to time, and includes garbage classification in the urban management target assessment and evaluation content.

In order to guide more people to participate in garbage classification, our city has established a "four-level" instructor system at the city, district, street, and community levels, organized garbage classification "Youth Volunteer Service City Demonstration" and "Little Hands Pulling Big Hands" and other activities, and compiled classification knowledge readers for preschool, primary school, and middle school versions.

Several departments in Chongqing are joining the upsurge of garbage classification--

The Municipal Development and Reform Commission supports the construction of PPP projects in the field of garbage classification, and actively builds an investment and financing pattern of "government-led, market-driven, and diversified investment";

The Municipal and District Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Commissions will include the classification of domestic waste in the supervision and inspection of property companies, and urge property companies to implement garbage classification;

The Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau strives to build (renovate and expand) 5 hazardous waste centralized incineration and landfill projects and 7 medical waste disposal projects in the city in 2020, and add more than 11,300 tons of medical waste centralized disposal, basically matching the city's hazardous waste disposal needs and capabilities;

The Municipal Commerce Commission accelerates the promotion of the "two-network integration" of the renewable resource recycling system and the domestic waste classification collection and transportation system, and strives to have renewable resource recycling companies for timely and designated recycling at each garbage classification and recycling demonstration point.

At the same time, a number of "shortcomings" sanitation infrastructure projects are also being promoted. As early as the end of this year, the large-scale secondary garbage transfer station in Xiajiaba, Yubei District will be put into use. By then, the total transfer capacity of the three major secondary domestic garbage transfer stations in the main urban area (the other two are Zouma in Jiulongpo District and Jieshi in Banan District) can reach 9,600 tons/day. Our city is building the largest and most comprehensive garbage classification and utilization industrial park in China, Luoqi Vein Industrial Park, in Yubei, covering an area of about 5,000 acres. After it is put into use in 2020, it can simultaneously process kitchen waste, fruit and vegetable waste, construction waste, general industrial waste and other garbage.

How to promote garbage classification? Experts offer suggestions

Zhu Dajian, director of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Management of Tongji University:

In the past, garbage classification was often a single-soldier operation of the sanitation department, but now it needs to be coordinated. The responsibilities of individuals and units should be clarified through legislation, and garbage classification should be transformed from a government solo to a social chorus.

Fu Yuechao, researcher at Chongqing Municipal Government Development Research Center:

Without a prosperous garbage classification and treatment industry ecology, it is difficult for garbage classification to become a reality from ideas, regulations and requirements. The actual situation of China's garbage collection and transportation should be fully considered, and an industrial chain from classification to collection, transportation, disposal and use should be constructed. Policy support should cover the entire industrial chain. For example, cities such as Nanjing subsidize the recycling of low-value garbage such as glass. Chongqing should speed up the introduction of policies to subsidize the recycling of low-value waste.

Liu Guotao, professor at the School of Urban Construction and Environmental Engineering of Chongqing University:

Many people think that garbage classification has low technological content, which is a misunderstanding. Big data and Internet of Things technologies can be applied to the field of garbage classification. Enterprises participating in garbage classification may not necessarily have benefits in the short term, which requires the government to provide supporting policies to encourage enterprises to apply scientific and technological achievements to garbage classification.

It should be noted that garbage classification should also be promoted from the source. At present, Shenzhen encourages enterprises to simplify product packaging and raise the threshold for disposable goods to enter the market. These practices are worth learning from Chongqing.

Reporter's Notes¡·¡·

Fighting the "battle" of garbage classification

Liao Xuemei Cui Yao

Garbage classification is a reflection of the level of civilization of a city. After the previous promotion and pilot projects, many citizens have realized the importance of garbage classification. The reporter believes that garbage classification is not only a protracted battle, but also a battle of hard work, and it must not be taken lightly.

Practice has proved that it takes time to change the awareness and living habits of residents. Judging from the experience of Japan and Taiwan, it will take about 20 years for garbage classification to reach a consensus of more than 90% of people. Only by doing a solid job in promoting garbage classification knowledge in schools and units, and doing a good job in pilot projects in every street and every community, can the trickle of streams converge into the sea.

Winning the battle of garbage classification requires the joint efforts of the government, enterprises, and citizens. First, citizens should establish awareness of waste classification, and bring waste classification education to campuses and communities to cultivate the habit of waste classification. Second, the government should actively explore ways to use government procurement services, tax incentives, and priority purchase of recycled products to introduce social capital and forces to actively participate. In addition, a long-term mechanism for waste classification should be established through legislation and compulsory measures. In this way, the concept that waste classification is a new fashion can be deeply rooted in people's hearts, and more companies can join the craze for waste treatment.

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