Hangzhou to Build Mandatory Packaging Recycling System to Curb Excessive Packaging

As the population grows and living standards rise, waste increases accordingly. But Hangzhou has proposed achieving zero growth in per capita domestic waste generation by 2015. Yesterday, the Hangzhou Municipal Government released the "Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening Domestic Waste Treatment Work" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Opinions").

The Implementation Opinions also specify that by 2015, domestic waste treatment capacity should exceed 10,000 tonnes per day, of which incineration capacity should reach 8,500 tonnes.

The Implementation Opinions propose carrying out reduction efforts at the source of domestic waste.

The Implementation Opinions propose that Hangzhou should improve product packaging and restrict excessive packaging, establish a mandatory packaging recovery system, promote the recycling of materials within production systems, and reduce or eliminate waste generation in the production and distribution stages.

At the same time, it advocates low-carbon living and moderate consumption, promotes green government procurement and green office practices, encourages the use of recyclable items, restricts the use of disposable products, and advocates bringing pre-cleaned vegetables and clean agricultural and sideline products into the city, so as to reduce domestic waste generation.

More importantly, plastic restriction management must be strengthened, enforcement of the "plastic restriction order" intensified, supervision and inspection of key venues and industries such as agricultural and sideline product markets and the retail sector enhanced, the use of shopping baskets and cloth bags promoted, and the sale and use of plastic bags gradually controlled and reduced.

Deploy vehicles for sorted waste transport

The Implementation Opinions require that sorted waste disposal be carried out comprehensively going forward. It should not only be fully implemented in urban districts, but more than 40% of residential communities in the five counties (cities) should also carry out sorted domestic waste disposal.

Following the four-category method of recyclables, kitchen waste, hazardous waste and other waste, efforts to promote sorted waste disposal across society should be intensified, and the pilot program of "sorted waste disposal at fixed times and locations" should be improved. The coverage of waste separation should be gradually expanded and the quality of waste separation improved.

In addition, priority should be given to deploying sorted transport vehicles suited to waste separation and strengthening sorted collection and transport management; in accordance with territorial management requirements, a registration system for kitchen waste discharge and a separate collection and recycling system should be established.

Incineration to become the primary means of waste treatment

Hangzhou will gradually shift from primarily landfilling domestic waste to primarily landfilling incineration fly ash. (In May last year, based on waste growth, the urban management office estimated that the Tianziling landfill had only 8.2 years of "life" left. By now, only about 7 years remain.)

By accelerating the construction of Phase II of the Binjiang waste incineration plant and speeding up the implementation of projects such as the Western waste incineration plant and the Xiaoshan District waste incineration plant, by 2015 the main urban area of Hangzhou will achieve the goal of treating domestic waste primarily by incineration, with waste incineration capacity reaching 1,300 tonnes/day in the east, 3,000 tonnes/day in the west and 1,200 tonnes/day in the south, while the volume handled by the Tianziling landfill in the north will be kept below 1,500 tonnes/day; Xiaoshan District's waste incineration capacity will reach more than 3,000 tonnes/day.

At the same time, Hangzhou will strengthen environmental pollution control at landfills, enhance leachate treatment, improve operations such as landfilling, compaction and covering, use landfill capacity economically and intensively, and increase the collection rate of landfill gas and power generation efficiency. It will improve the functions of the environmental park at the Tianziling landfill, upgrade the Wailiugongduan landfill in Xiaoshan District, and require substandard landfills to be upgraded within a set deadline.

In addition, Hangzhou will accelerate the construction of a pilot biological treatment project for kitchen waste, with a treatment scale of 200 tonnes/day by 2015. It will encourage large hotels and restaurants, agricultural and sideline product markets, universities and other places where kitchen waste is concentrated to pilot the construction of organic waste treatment facilities, promoting on-site treatment and resource utilization. It will establish a resource recovery, utilization and management mechanism for bulky waste such as discarded furniture, home appliances and bicycles, improve second-hand goods markets, and increase the efficiency of resource recycling of bulky waste.

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361993.html