Shenzhen on the way to be waste-free

Shenzhen has played a demonstrative role and created an applicable, replicable format for other cities in waste-free construction, a meeting of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment was told in Shenzhen recently.

Data from the city's ecology and environment bureau showed that Shenzhen generates about 440,000 tons of solid waste including 400,000 tons of construction waste and 28,500 tons of household waste every day.

The city was chosen as one of 10 cities by the ministry to pilot waste-free programs and to curb trash created in cities in May 2019.

Since then, Shenzhen has established a system of 58 indexes and broke those down into 100 tasks on waste treatment from the perspectives of legislation, technology, market and supervision.

At present, the coverage of the household garbage classification and collection system has reached 100 percent.

The landfill for household garbage has been further lowered and the utilization of construction waste has reached 98 percent.

The city invested 20 billion yuan (US$2.95 billion) in 75 projects in solid waste treatment by way of waste-free construction.

Among the projects, 41 have been completed and 10 other projects will be completed within the year. Work on six projects will start before the end of the year and 19 projects are under planning and research.

In medical waste treatment, Shenzhen added a treatment line that can handle 35 tons of waste a day, and a disposal line that can handle 20 tons of medical waste.

According to Yin Jie, deputy chief of the bureau, Shenzhen has formed complete sets of supervision mechanisms in the treatment of solid waste that include construction waste, kitchen waste, medical waste, and general industrial waste.

The city has recently passed regulations on compulsory garbage classification. Of the 28,500 tons of household garbage generated each day, 9,500 tons were classified and reused and 19,000 tons were incinerated to generate electricity.

In disposal of dangerous waste, the city has applied GPS and an intelligent supervision system to ensure 41 types of dangerous waste are properly handled.

About 10 billion tons of solid waste are produced annually in China. If poorly handled, the waste will be a huge burden for the environment and a waste of resources.