Morning in Heling Village, Jiuxian Street

The journey of a bag of garbage into resources

Tonglu takes the lead in achieving full coverage of rural garbage classification and resource disposal

China must be beautiful, and rural areas must be beautiful. In improving the quality of rural ecological environment, how can we go one step further and faster and strive to build a beautiful Zhejiang? On the banks of the Fuchun River, Tonglu promotes the resource utilization of garbage according to local conditions. Through the market-oriented operation mechanism, it not only turns garbage into organic fertilizer to generate economic benefits, but also leads green life, improves the living environment, and improves the level of local ecological civilization construction. In this process, resource-based industries such as garbage disposal terminals, intelligent garbage recycling systems, and garbage removal have also stood on the green "wind".

Zhejiang rural garbage resource reduction pilot report card.

Garbage is a resource that is placed in the wrong place. Promoting garbage resource utilization and turning decay into magic is a cutting-edge technology pursued by modern society, and it is also the art of life contained in green development.

From a global perspective, resource recycling has become a pillar industry in some countries. Sweden buys garbage from its neighbors to obtain resources at low cost; Germany's garbage management creates tens of billions of euros in turnover and 200,000 jobs every year. While generating huge social and economic benefits, garbage resource utilization has become the internal driving force for a country's sustainable development.

Tonglu is one of the pathfinders and pioneers of rural domestic garbage classification and disposal in Zhejiang. Currently, 110,000 households with a total of 323,000 rural residents are all involved in garbage classification; 183 administrative villages have built a total of 145 resource disposal facilities, taking the lead in China to achieve full coverage of rural garbage classification and resource disposal; the organic fertilizer produced by garbage is uniformly purchased and registered as "Xiaoyuan", which has entered more than 110 Century Lianhua supermarkets and RT-Mart supermarkets in the province, and is expected to generate 2 million yuan in economic benefits. From here, the green industry has moved from ideal to reality.

Tonglu Luci Village Garbage Resource Utilization Station.

Market Operation

Garbage has become a hot commodity

Garbage from rural Tonglu has recently become a "hot commodity" in supermarkets in Hangzhou. Why?

It turns out that the garbage here refers to "Paradise" brand farm soil fertilizer. They are organic fertilizers made by processing a large amount of compostable garbage after Tonglu County implemented the classification of rural domestic garbage.

Since May last year, these farm soil fertilizers that have turned waste into treasure have entered the shelves of more than 110 Century Lianhua Supermarkets and RT-Mart Supermarkets in the province and entered the homes of ordinary people. In addition to supermarkets, all scenic spots and homestays in Tonglu can also buy uniformly packaged farm soil fertilizers.

"Garbage turns into soil fertilizer, which triggers an entire green industrial chain." Fang Wenjian, deputy director of the Tonglu County Environmental Protection Bureau, introduced that Tonglu now produces 2,000 tons of "Paradise" brand farm soil fertilizers annually, which will then feed back more than 2 million yuan to the fiscal revenue. At the same time, Tonglu has also achieved the goal of reducing the amount of garbage. In 2015, the amount of garbage incinerated decreased by about 20% compared with the same period in 2014, which is a win-win situation for the economy and ecology.

"Source classification, transportation mixing, and inadequate terminal treatment" are the bottlenecks that restrict the reduction and resource utilization of urban domestic garbage. At the beginning of the source classification of rural domestic garbage, Tonglu took classification and disposal into consideration, so that compostable garbage has a resource destination.

Tonglu has 183 administrative villages and a total of 145 garbage resource utilization sites. After considering factors such as population density, the amount of compostable garbage, the demand for organic fertilizers, and transportation costs, one village or multiple villages are built together to develop two modes of microbial fermentation resource disposal and solar energy ordinary composting disposal.

Driving on the slightly undulating mountain road and gradually moving away from the village, Fang Xinghong parked the truck in front of a house with white tiles and glass windows. This is the Jinzhong Village Garbage Resource Utilization Station. As a hauler, Fang Xinghong has to transport the compostable garbage in the village here every day, and put them into the microbial fermentation resource disposal equipment. After 4 to 7 days, organic fertilizer can be produced.

This machine is "Made in Tonglu". Tonglu County Environmental Protection Monitoring Station, together with the Ecological Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted research and development based on the pilot equipment. After the success, they also applied for a patent. Now they have built a manufacturing base with an annual output of 300 garbage resource equipment and have become an exporter of advanced technology.

Garbage fertilizer is popular in cities and has long been popular in rural areas. There is a solar composting room in Eshan National Village, Eshan Township. With the development of high-mountain tea and wild rice cultivation in Eshan Township, organic fertilizer has become more and more popular among farmers. "Organic fertilizer is often used by villagers to grow vegetables and flowers." Zhu Bo, a member of the Party Committee of Eshan Township, said.

With the in-depth promotion of garbage classification, the output of organic fertilizer has stabilized, "about 5,000 tons of fertilizer are produced each year." Ren Danping, director of the office of Tonglu County Environmental Protection Bureau, introduced that at this time, how to provide endogenous motivation for garbage classification and make garbage "cash in"? The answer is marketization and industrialization.

Tonglu County introduced enterprise management, scientifically proportioned and tested organic fertilizers, and registered the "Xiaoyuan" brand organic fertilizer. After testing by the Quality and Safety Supervision and Inspection Center for Agricultural Products and Genetically Modified Products of the Ministry of Agriculture (Hangzhou), all indicators met the national organic fertilizer implementation standards and are good "nutrients" for farmland.

Zhu Qingli, who has been doing organic fertilizer business in rural areas for many years, is the general manager of Tonglu Yingli Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd., responsible for the production and operation of "Xiaoyuan" organic fertilizer. In the Zhishan natural village of Jinxi Village, the factory building hidden in the green mountains is the organic fertilizer composting field.

"Using scientifically proportioned bacteria compost, natural fermentation will not produce leachate, thus avoiding secondary pollution." In Zhu Qingli's view, harmless treatment is particularly important in the process of garbage resource utilization, which is also the ultimate pursuit of garbage classification and treatment.

In Tonglu, a green lifestyle is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Intelligent recycling

Source classification is more accurate

In Tonglu, it is not just organic fertilizer that is sought after. Cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, and hazardous waste such as batteries that people used to discard at will now have a good place to recycle.

In summer and autumn, there are no mosquitoes and flies in Xiawanli Natural Village, Xiwushan Village, Jiuxian Street, and the breeze is blowing. Chai Yuping, who runs a small shop, joked that the business of daily necessities such as toothpaste and cooking wine has been "robbed" by "chicken feathers for sugar".

In the early years, "chicken feathers for sugar" meant that someone would carry a load, shake a rattle, and shout "chicken feathers for sugar" while walking. At this time, whoever had chicken feathers or duck feathers would take them out to exchange for sugar. But the "chicken feathers for sugar" that Chai Yuping mentioned was the name of a store, and the "waiter" was a village cadre. Villagers could go to the "chicken feathers for sugar" store to exchange the garbage they picked up from their homes or on the road for daily necessities.

"50 plastic bags can be exchanged for a bag of chicken essence, 20 plastic bottles can be exchanged for a tube of toothpaste, 10 old batteries can be exchanged for a bag of soy sauce..." Chen Caixia, chairman of the Women's Federation of Xiwushan Village, introduced that the exchange time is from 8 to 10 am on the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month. The recyclable garbage obtained from the exchange is sent to the waste recycling station to realize the reuse of waste resources.

The "chicken feathers for sugar" store is less than 100 meters away from Chai Yuping's home. Chai Yuping has almost never missed the three exchange days every month. Chai Yuping's family has a small room dedicated to stacking waste. Wine bottles, plastic bottles, and plastic bags are neatly arranged in different categories. "Waste has been turned into supplies, and the enthusiasm of neighbors to sort garbage has increased."

Nowadays, large and small exchange supermarkets are scattered in the countryside of Tonglu. Yangshanfan Village and Shuangxi Village in Hengcun Town have also established garbage sorting points rewards. When you accumulate 10 points, you can exchange for daily necessities such as toothpaste and soap. Villagers get affirmation and happiness from garbage sorting.

It used to be passive sorting, but now it is active sorting. Yao Aifang, chairman of the Women's Federation of Zhongmen Village, Eshan Township, is often stumped by the villagers' questions: "Especially during festivals, villagers come to ask me how to throw this and that." Yao Aifang said, for example, during the Dragon Boat Festival, after eating zongzi, villagers came to ask with zong leaves and zong ropes. Yao Aifang consulted environmental experts and told the villagers to throw zong leaves into the blue trash can and zong ropes into the yellow trash can.

Fuchunjiang Town adopts an intelligent ecological garbage classification system to make garbage classification and recycling more meticulous. At the already built Huangpoling Community intelligent delivery point, domestic garbage is divided into four types: recyclable garbage, kitchen garbage, toxic and hazardous garbage, and other garbage.

After residents arrive at the garbage delivery point, they put the classified domestic garbage on the corresponding platform with a weighing function and swipe their citizen card or ID card. After hearing a "beep" prompt sound, the bag of garbage is successfully delivered.

Every time garbage is delivered, the system will record the identity information, delivery time, garbage category and weight, and the points exchanged. You can enjoy discounts when shopping at the "ecological micro-station" to be built later. It is understood that Fuchunjiang Town will build 30 delivery points and 5 "ecological micro-stations".

Walking in the Tonglu countryside, there are two garbage cans neatly placed at the door of every household. The blue garbage can is used to hold rotten garbage, and the yellow garbage can is used to hold non-rotten garbage. In Tonglu, everyone from the octogenarians to school-age children can accurately sort and dispose of household waste.

Currently, all 323,000 rural residents in 110,000 households in Tonglu County have participated in waste sorting, and the correct rate of source sorting has basically stabilized at around 85%.

Two classified trash cans in Tonglu Village.

Green Life

Leading a New Trend in Rural Areas

The picturesque scenery of Tonglu County is charming. The people living there use their green lifestyle to make the countryside more charming.

Lei Zhangzhu, a villager in Zhongmen Village, starts his day with waste sorting. At 6:30 in the morning, Lei Zhangzhu began to prepare breakfast for his family. Corn silk and corn husks were thrown into a blue garbage bag, and the red ropes used to tie green vegetables were thrown into a yellow garbage bag. At 6:50, Lei Zhangzhu went out with two garbage bags. After placing them at a fixed point, she rode her electric bike to work outside the village. At 5 p.m., Lei Zhangzhu returned home from get off work. She carefully put away the express boxes she retrieved, and used tape to splice them into low cabinets and storage cabinets.

The garbage bags distributed to each household in Zhongmen Village have fixed numbers and are placed in designated garbage pools between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. the next day. Since having her own exclusive garbage bags, Lei Zhangzhu's family has gradually reduced the amount of garbage, and "which garbage can be turned into treasure" has become her habitual thought.

Xiwushan Village is located at the junction of the city and suburbs of Tonglu County. It has a permanent population of more than 1,000 and a local population of only 243. There are many immigrants and small and medium-sized enterprises, so it is labeled as "dirty, messy and poor."

The counterattack occurred at the end of 2016. Xiwushan Village stood out among the 183 administrative villages in the county and became one of the three demonstration villages of "Clean Tonglu" in 2016. The underachievers became model students.

The changes are quietly taking place in the village, but Chen Caixia can clearly feel it. Last year, Chen Caixia carried fire tongs and gloves with her. She put on gloves wherever she went and picked up fire tongs to check the garbage classification bins. This year, Chen Caixia can't remember where she left these two magic weapons. "The villagers have done a good job in garbage classification."

As garbage classification and recycling and resource utilization have become popular, the villagers' lifestyle has also been sublimated. In Xiwushan Village, the old clothes recycling "giant panda" seen in the city is also placed at the door of the "chicken feathers for sugar" store. Villagers put their idle clothes into it, and the worn-out clothes are cut into sleeves, mops, etc.

Draw a few strokes on an empty wine jar, and the wine jar becomes a unique flower pot; cut out a shape of a used beverage bottle with scissors and turn it into a practical ashtray; plant succulents on the worn plastic shell of a thermos bottle... At the corner of Tonglu Village, you can always encounter such smart and skillful waste recycling.

The resource utilization of garbage adds a touch of green to the farmers' production methods. The beautiful mountains and waters and ethnic customs make Eshan She Nationality Township gradually familiar to tourists. Villagers took the opportunity to develop high-altitude vegetable and fruit planting, and the original ecological agricultural products using garbage organic fertilizer were loved by city people. Even in the midsummer when watermelons are on the market in large quantities, the watermelons sold at 3 yuan per catty in Daijiashan Village are still in short supply.

Garbage classification and sewage treatment make the rural environment more beautiful, and people are more cherishing the hard-won beautiful environment. Yan Wei, deputy mayor of Fuchunjiang Town, shared a story that happened in the village a few days ago: a villager wanted to start a homestay business, so he renovated the bamboo forest that had been abandoned. The villager said: "In the future, we will not cut down bamboos or trees, and leave the mountains green." Yan Wei said: "Now I feel that mountains of gold and silver cannot buy green mountains and clear waters." Tonglu, where rural tourism is developing in full swing, has long abandoned the old concept of sacrificing the ecological environment for economic benefits and gathered new impetus for economic development.

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