Hangzhou to Mandate Packaging Take-Back as Part of New Waste Treatment Rules

More people and higher living standards normally mean more rubbish. Hangzhou, however, wants per-capita household waste generation to stop growing altogether by 2015. To get there, the municipal government has released its Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening Domestic Waste Treatment (the Implementation Opinions).

Under the document, the city's domestic waste treatment capacity must exceed 10,000 tonnes per day by 2015, with incineration accounting for 8,500 tonnes of that figure.

Waste reduction, the plan stresses, has to begin at the source.

That translates into better product packaging and a clampdown on excessive packaging, together with a mandatory packaging take-back system. The goal is to keep materials circulating within production systems and to cut — or eliminate — waste during manufacturing and distribution.

Consumption habits get attention too: low-carbon living and moderate spending, green government procurement and green offices, wider use of recyclable items, restrictions on single-use products, and the delivery of pre-cleaned vegetables and clean agricultural and sideline produce into the city to trim household waste.

Plastic bags remain a priority. Hangzhou wants tougher enforcement of its plastic restriction order, closer supervision of farm produce markets and retail outlets, greater uptake of shopping baskets and cloth bags, and a gradual reduction in the sale and use of plastic bags.

Sorted collection needs matching trucks

Source-separated disposal is to be rolled out across the board — not only in urban districts, but also in more than 40% of residential communities in the five counties (cities).

Using the four-stream method — recyclables, kitchen waste, hazardous waste and other waste — the city will push separation across society, refine its pilot of collection at fixed times and locations, broaden coverage and raise the quality of separation.

Equally important is a fleet of trucks that matches the sorting system, backed by stronger collection and transport management. Following territorial management requirements, Hangzhou will also establish a registration system for kitchen waste discharge and a separate collection and recycling system.

Incineration set to replace landfill as the main route

Hangzhou will gradually move away from burying household waste, shifting instead to landfilling incineration fly ash. (In May last year, urban management officials calculated from waste growth trends that the Tianziling landfill had only 8.2 years of capacity left; by now roughly seven years remain.)

With Phase II of the Binjiang incineration plant accelerating and the Western and Xiaoshan District plants moving forward, the main urban area should be treating household waste mainly by incineration by 2015: 1,300 tonnes/day in the east, 3,000 tonnes/day in the west and 1,200 tonnes/day in the south, while the Tianziling landfill in the north handles fewer than 1,500 tonnes/day. Xiaoshan District's incineration capacity will exceed 3,000 tonnes/day.

Landfill pollution control will be tightened as well — stronger leachate treatment, better landfilling, compaction and covering practices, more economical and intensive use of limited capacity, and higher landfill gas capture rates and power generation efficiency. Hangzhou will also upgrade the environmental park at the Tianziling landfill, improve the Wailiugongduan landfill in Xiaoshan District, and require substandard sites to be fixed within a set deadline.

Kitchen waste is another focus. A pilot biological treatment project will be fast-tracked to reach 200 tonnes/day by 2015, and large hotels and restaurants, farm produce markets and universities will be encouraged to pilot on-site organic waste facilities for local treatment and resource recovery. A recovery and management mechanism for bulky waste — discarded furniture, home appliances and bicycles — is also planned, alongside better second-hand goods markets and higher recycling efficiency for such items.

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