Environment Working Group Meeting: "No Waste City" Initiatives, Solid Waste Management & Potential Business Opportunities
2019-06-20 | Beijing
On 20th June, the Chamber’s Environment Working Group held a working group meeting at the Beijing office themed “'No Waste City’ Initiatives, Solid Waste Management & Potential Business Opportunities.” Two speakers, Dr. Teng Jingjie from the Solid Waste Management Centre of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Dr. Pan Gong, Director and Principal Consultant of Solid Waste Industry Research Centre of the E20 Environment Platform, gave two detailed and informative speeches regarding the new “No Waste City” initiative and relevant business opportunities.
Mr. Christoph Schrempp, National Vice Chair of the Environment Working group welcomed the two speakers to visit the Chamber and to share with our members the latest information in the solid waste sector on behalf of the working group. Dr. Teng then delivered a detailed speech on the waste and pollution issues China is facing and how the “No-Waste City” initiative tackles the existing problems:
· China ranks no. 1 in the world in solid waste generation, the volume ranking by category from the most to the least is agricultural wastes, industrial wastes, construction wastes, household wastes; the major problem for the country is a massive generation of solid waste with inadequate disposal and recycles capacity;
· The “No Waste City” Initiative sets a two-year plan to establish a comprehensive management regime and technical specification system at pilot cities to be adopted nationwide by 2021; Targets set by the central government is neither arbitrary nor mandatory, it leaves local authorities with much freedom to improvise based on local conditions and local needs;
Dr. Teng concluded that “No-Waste City” is a long-run project, it is a great chance for the state to eradicate its solid waste problems.
Following a brief tea break, Dr. Pan Gong delivered his speech on the business potential and future market volume in China’s waste management market:
· City Waste: Urban areas either have established or in the process of establishing the 3-categories garbage sorting cans in neighborhoods and business areas: kitchen waste, normal waste, and recyclable waste. The market potential in the kitchen waste treatment sector is tremendous, 10 billion RMB of market volume has been released as a result of garbage sorting and open up measures, as the sector continues to open to private players, the full market volume is expected to be released, at roughly 44 billion RMB.
· Rural Waste: In the rural area, livestock excrement, diseased livestock corpses, straws, kitchen wastes are the main sources of solid waste; as the size of villages and towns cannot sustain waste treatment facilities, China is establishing a three-tier system: collection on village level, transfer on township level, treatment on the county level;
· Industrial Waste: Recycled usage and treatment of hazardous wastes has seen steady growth in the past years since 2011;
Attendees of the Chamber’s Environment Working Group thanked Dr. Teng and Dr. Pan for the informative speeches, and look forward to future exchanges with the two speakers for up to date information in the environment sector.