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Solid Waste Management in China

Introduction

The Peoples Republic of

China is the most

populous country in theworld, population >1.3

billion

One of the fastest

growing economies

China produces > a

billion tons of solid waste,

surpassing the USA is set to produce 490

million tons of MSW /year

by 2030 according to a

World Bank report

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MSW Composition

waste ash

(approximately 25

million tons per year

or 13%)high levels of organic

waste (40-65)%

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MSW Composition in China compared to USA

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Waste Generation & Collection

Rural Solid Waste Rural residents make up

72% of Chinas

population

Receive no refusecollection service

Refuse dumped on

unusedland or directly

into a river Most rural waste non-

toxic

The mainproblems are

bacteria.

Municipal Solid Waste Daily MSW collection

and street sweepings

Common method of

waste collection is acentral drop-off scheme

for each neighborhood or

building

Drop off points-designated spot, pile

garbage, barrels or bins,

refuse sorting centers

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MSW Generation contd

Current level of MSWgeneration in China -

0.4 kg/person/day (avg)

0.9 kg/p/day in cities

The World Bank estimates-due to increase in living

standard, the avg figure will

surpass 1kg/p/day by 2030.

Projected MSW Generation in India, China, USA4

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Disposal

Landfilling is the most

common method of solid

waste disposal

Chinas 660 cities have

about 1000 landfills

Will require an estimated

additional 100,000 hectares

over the next 30 years

Cities %

Simple

Landfill

%

Sanitar

y

landfill

W2E

Faciliti

es

Beijing 73 24 3

Tianjin 73 27 0

Shangh

ai

95 5

Chongq

ing

74 13 13

Wuhan 13 84 3

Guangj

hou

95 5

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Recycling

Waste management system

includes a high degree ofsorting and recycling

Carried out with the manual

labor of garbage pickers

6Recyclable Materials in Waste Stream

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Composting

Compostinga viable

option as 50% of the waste

stream consists of bio-

degradable organics

7Principal set-up of Composting Facility

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Waste-to-energy

The high food and inorganic waste content of MSW lowers

the heating value

In the year 2002, the avg calorific value was 3300MJ/kg

(ranged from 2000MJ/kg to 7000MJ/kg. )

The World Bank specifies the Autogenic limit for WTE fuel

as 6MJ/kg.

This means most Chinese MSW cannot sustain combustion

without an auxiliary fuel.

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Conclusions

The environmental situation in China is dire, and worst in the

world at the present time

The Chinese Government pushed up environmental spending

to 1.5% of GDP (to $US16.5 billion) from around 0.5%

presently

The Chinese government has been strongly promoting WTE

technology and has set a goal for 30% of MSW to be treated

by WTE by the year 2030.

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