A waste collection station on Qixia Road

Shanghai Urban Management Law Enforcement Team members inspected the classification of domestic waste on site

Xu Chengwei, relevant person in charge of Shanghai Municipal Urban Management Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau

Digital Visibility

From July 1 to 31, Shanghai

Investigated and dealt with 872 cases of various types of domestic waste classification

Ordered 8,655 cases to be rectified on the spot or within a time limit

The problem of unclassified disposal is the most serious,

Large shopping malls and commercial buildings are the "hardest hit areas" of the problem

Data source: Shanghai Urban Management

Shanghai has implemented garbage classification for one month, which has brought profound impacts to the whole society. Including people's lifestyles, working methods, and many industries.

In the past month, garbage classification has become the key enforcement content of the Shanghai Municipal Urban Management Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau. Propaganda and education, setting up trash cans, spot checks and other work are being carried out in full swing. Urban management law enforcement officers are running around the streets and alleys of Shanghai. Whether it is residential areas, high-rise residential buildings, shopping malls, office buildings, or suburbs, villages, and scenic spots, you can see them. Wearing gloves to take out garbage bags has become their daily work.

Throughout July, the working hours of the Shanghai Municipal Urban Management Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau are comparable to "996".

Recently, Xu Chengwei, the relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Urban Management Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, finally took time out to have a face-to-face exchange with the Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter on issues related to Shanghai's garbage classification.

In the one month since the implementation of the "Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Regulations", garbage classification has become the focus of law enforcement of the Shanghai Municipal Urban Management Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau. Xu Chengwei frankly admitted that from the perspective of various processing capabilities, it is currently difficult to achieve a thorough classification of domestic waste classification throughout the entire process, and the transformation of domestic waste into treasure also requires further improvement of relevant technologies.

Garbage sieges the city and must be classified

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: Please introduce the overall situation of Shanghai's mandatory implementation of garbage classification in the past month?

Xu Chengwei: The classification of domestic waste is not something that suddenly came to mind. As early as more than ten years ago, Shanghai has begun to promote this work. In recent years, the booming development of takeout and express delivery has significantly increased domestic waste. In addition, Shanghai has a population of more than 20 million and is surrounded by garbage. The pressure to deal with garbage is very high. Not only Shanghai, but also China must promote the classification of domestic waste.

Shanghai's domestic waste is divided into four categories: dry waste, wet waste, recyclables, and hazardous waste. Community buildings are all classified in four categories, and households are generally classified in two categories. In areas with more tourists, Shanghai implements two classifications of dry waste and recyclables. Since the classification and treatment of wet waste is more cumbersome, if it cannot be classified, it is treated as dry waste. This is a current treatment principle. The classification of domestic waste was proposed last year, legislated in January 2019, and the "Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Regulations" was officially implemented on July 1. Between the legislation and July 1, we did a lot of publicity work, informing everyone how to classify the four categories, checking the setting of garbage bins and other containers, and revising the regulations. We combined the publicity of each district's characteristics, for example, rural areas emphasized the formation of living habits, while urban areas emphasized how to classify garbage. Recently, we are conducting flight inspections, which are random inspections. For example, we conducted random inspections in Huangpu District before, and found that the main problem was that the garbage containers of the property were not in place.

In Shanghai, the classification and management of domestic waste that is closely related to residents is as follows: Shanghai Greening and City Appearance Bureau--Greening and City Appearance Bureaus of various districts--Subdistrict Offices--Properties of various communities. In addition, the garbage bins on the streets are under the responsibility of the Environmental Sanitation Office. The community implements community autonomy, and volunteers and property management are organically combined.

Wet garbage "broken bags" attract attention

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: On July 25, the Shanghai Municipal Information Office released a phased score for the effectiveness of garbage classification in regions and streets. What are the main criteria for this score? What are the criteria for judging the random inspections of Shanghai Urban Management?

Xu Chengwei: The scoring criteria are mainly based on the reduction of garbage. The focus of our law enforcement is on container setting, that is, whether the garbage bins are in place, and the ratio of dry and wet garbage bins should be adapted to local conditions; the other is mixed dumping, mainly dry and wet dumping. We need to turn over by hand or pinch with tweezers, mainly to check whether the dry garbage bins are mixed with wet garbage. Wet garbage has a "bag breaking" process, and volunteers are more concerned about the "bag breaking" of wet garbage.

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: As the first city in China to fully implement the classification of domestic garbage, Shanghai's setting of dry and wet garbage has attracted attention in China. This setting is very different from the general understanding of dry and wet. How was it considered at the beginning?

Xu Chengwei: This was not set by the urban management. The definition at that time may involve translation or literal understanding. But from the perspective of our popularization and publicity, whether it can be degraded is the most critical distinction. But it does cause cognitive misunderstandings in some subdivided fields, which requires increased publicity efforts.

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: If the standard is whether it can be degraded, then why are fish bones wet garbage and pig bones dry garbage?

Xu Chengwei: Wet garbage must not only be degradable, but also whether the garbage processing machine can bear it in actual operation. In fact, the bones of pigs, cattle and sheep are very difficult to degrade and difficult to process by machines. Another example is the shell of crayfish, which is also difficult to degrade in nature. Before we carry out specific work, it is difficult for us to find problems in details. In addition, we do not encourage the use of degradable garbage bags because they are difficult to degrade in nature and increase the workload of sorting.

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: At present, other cities in China that carry out household garbage sorting do not follow the standards of dry and wet garbage, but divide them into perishable garbage. Is this based on the experience of Shanghai?

Xu Chengwei: From my personal point of view, (dry and wet garbage) are indeed not very clear. This is a process of habit formation. At present, everyone is almost used to it.

The problem is more serious in shopping malls, office buildings and scenic spots

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: What problems have Shanghai Urban Management encountered in the process of publicity and law enforcement? How to solve them?

Xu Chengwei: At first, we thought that the problems in the community would be more serious, but in the actual law enforcement process, the problems in shopping malls, office buildings and scenic spots were more serious. Due to the large flow of people, although the setting of the trash cans is very clear, there is a lack of supervision and guidance, and the problem of mixed throwing is more serious. So we increased the number of law enforcement personnel and traced the source through monitoring and video recording in various places. However, garbage disposal is a random process, and it is difficult to obtain evidence. Some other transfer stations have not been set up yet, and work in this regard is still ongoing.

Old garbage trucks will be gradually eliminated

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: Some citizens reported that old garbage trucks would leak garbage liquid, causing secondary pollution. How to solve it?

Xu Chengwei: This situation does exist. We are now all equipped according to the requirements of new cars, and old cars will be gradually eliminated.

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: Waste paper and cans are all collected by the waste station. What are the main things in the recyclable garbage bin?

Xu Chengwei: First of all, there are things that the waste station does not collect, and there are also large pieces of garbage, such as mattresses. There are also companies that recycle home appliances and furniture, such as Suning.

Shanghai's two-network integration is continuing to advance

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: At present, how the terminal handles the most attention, how does the urban management supervise the classification and processing of the back-end companies?

Xu Chengwei: In terms of law enforcement methods, we mainly conduct random inspections. The law enforcement goal is to ensure that companies do a good job of classification and processing in accordance with regulations. There are some technical problems in the delivery of dry and wet garbage to the terminal. If the technology is improved, it may be further improved. Most of the harmful substances can only be landfilled in the end, and there is really no better way from a technical point of view. We visited Laogang before, and the other party introduced that those broken glass and plastics cannot be degraded even if they are placed underground for hundreds of years, but landfilling is the least dangerous treatment method for the human body. I think the current technology is not yet able to treat everything harmlessly.

Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News: According to the "Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Full-Process Classification System Construction Action Plan (2018-2020)", Shanghai will establish a full-process system from source to end, including recycling service points, transfer stations, and distribution centers that integrate the two networks. In 2018, 2,000 recycling outlets, 109 transfer stations, and 10 distribution centers will be built; in 2019, 5,000 recycling outlets and 170 transfer stations will be built; in 2020, 8,000 recycling outlets and 210 transfer stations will be built, basically realizing the integration of the two networks, and the recycling rate of domestic waste resources will reach 35%. At present, how is the integration of the two networks in Shanghai specifically promoted?

Xu Chengwei: At present, it is mainly promoted through some qualified and professional non-governmental organizations. I am communicating with some non-governmental organizations now. From the government's perspective, non-governmental organizations are more professional than government projects. In addition, with the maturity of the business model, social enterprises are also a trend. At present, they all need the government to purchase services, and they are mainly at the primary sorting stage.

Economic perspective

Under the classification of domestic waste, the waste recycling industry is on the eve of great changes

Change 1

Working methods

In the past, we picked up garbage from trash cans, but now we "wait for the rabbits"

The pedals of Li Li (pseudonym), a street cleaner in Lujiazui, are filled with plastic bottles, and the back seat is tied with corrugated cardboard boxes. When the reporter saw her, she was about to ride away.

Li Li said that after the implementation of garbage classification, the purchase price of waste has not changed, but now there are more advertising paper and document paper. "I didn't pick up paper in the past because it would easily get wet and rot in the trash. I would pick out other glass bottles and cans from the trash, but now it's convenient and clean."

Garbage sorting reduces pollution to recyclable materials at the source, which is the most obvious feeling of Li Li. However, the income growth of Li Li and others is lower than expected, which may be related to the entry of Internet recycling companies such as Aihuishou. "There are two groups of Aihuishou machines in the nearby community. The waste they recycle is the same as what I pick up. Young people prefer to use Aihuishou. If a large number of them enter the community, my income may drop." Li Li said with some concern.

Li Li said that the biggest change brought to them after the implementation of garbage sorting is that in the past, they needed to search through multiple garbage bins in the community and on the streets to pick up garbage, but now they only need to wait for recyclable materials to be "delivered to their doorstep" every day at the garbage delivery time.

The reporter noticed that the garbage sorting in their community can earn points to exchange for daily necessities. Each household has a QR code card, which is scanned by volunteers or cleaners on their mobile phones after delivery. Most residents will directly hand over the recyclable garbage to the cleaners, which does not affect their points.

A staff member of Aihuihui told reporters that the company is using the Internet to do garbage sorting and renewable resource recycling. This is a project of "two networks integration" of the Shanghai Municipal Government's garbage sorting network and renewable resource recycling network. Aihuihui has piloted the placement of recyclable garbage collection boxes in many communities, schools, and parks in Shanghai. The project is currently in the trial operation stage.

Change 2

Recycling volume

Garbage sorting has little impact, and the total amount of waste has increased by about 10%

A waste collection station located on Qixia Road is a typical front line of community renewable material recycling.

The collection station is set up at the community gate guard. The eye-catching billboard with red background and white letters is marked with the words "waste recycling station" and contact information. The collection range radiates more than a dozen surrounding communities. Mr. Liu at the waste collection station clearly felt that after the implementation of garbage sorting, the total amount of waste received increased by about 10%.

Mr. Liu said that neither the purchase price nor the selling price to upstream enterprises has been affected by garbage classification. "All places are cleaning up waste collection stations, but this is more due to environmental protection and city appearance requirements. For example, street rectification will cause the collection station to relocate or close. Just some time ago, Shanghai concentrated on rectifying waste recycling stations that did not have business licenses and did not meet environmental protection and fire protection requirements." The reporter learned that many community waste recycling is currently the outlets of renewable material recycling companies. These outlets share the business licenses of the companies, which has also led to the emergence of "hanging" and other phenomena. As for the implementation of garbage classification, the source of recyclables is relatively more concentrated, but the number of practitioners and waste stations has not changed much.

The reporter found that the recyclable garbage bins were full of broken glass, old mattresses and other items that recycling stations do not collect. The quantity was not large and was only cleared once every two weeks.

Change to 3

Market share

Internet companies enter the market, There will be more wolves and less meat in the future

According to Wind data, in the past month, garbage classification concept stocks have generally improved, and the environmental protection and public utilities sectors have also performed well. The trend of garbage classification has been formed. Based on the Shanghai model, Oriental Securities Research Institute predicts that the scale of China's garbage classification market will be close to 200 billion yuan. If the community waste collection station does not feel deeply, some large waste material recycling companies have already felt the huge pressure brought by many new companies, especially Internet giants such as Alipay.

Shanghai Baoshan Jiaman Waste Material Recycling Station covers an area of 1,200 square meters. It has the qualification certification of the Shanghai Renewable Resources Recycling Association and is registered with the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce. It is a large recycling station with legal qualifications. The person in charge, Mr. Xu, told reporters that after the implementation of garbage classification, the total amount of recyclable materials has increased significantly, and there has been no significant change in prices, employees and the number of recycling stations. However, powerful companies in the recycling system, especially mid- and back-end companies, are gradually extending to the front end. "Under the general trend of garbage classification and the background of the integration of the two networks, this industry is moving towards standardization. At present, most companies make profits through government procurement of services, which puts higher requirements on corporate qualifications."

Whether it is Alipay's online "Yidairen" service or Shanghai's local "Taofeibao", Internet companies have set their sights on the trend of garbage classification. "Although it is difficult to obtain relevant licenses, the number of new companies entering the market is gradually increasing. It can be foreseen that there will be a situation of "more wolves and less meat" in the future." Mr. Xu said.

(Photo report by Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Wu Danruo)

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