Exclusive! Interpretation of the "Evaluation Report on the Effect of Special Remediation of Waste Incineration Power Generation Industry" by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Exclusive! Interpretation of the "Evaluation Report on the Effect of Special Remediation of Waste Incineration Power Generation Industry" by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Article guide

On January 2, 2021, Solid Waste Watch has released a quick news report on the "Evaluation Report on the Special Remediation Effect of Waste Incineration Power Generation Industry". This time, Mr. Li Yuhong, the leader of the research group, accepted an interview with Qingqi Group. Mr. Li said that the research team obtained all the data and information from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment from 2017 to the present on the automatic monitoring data and information of all waste incineration companies, both in terms of breadth and depth, and should be second to none in similar domestic research fields, and the conclusions and expositions of related reports are quite solid and credible. Today, solid waste observation will bring you an exclusive in-depth interpretation for the first time.

Beginning in 2017, garbage classification has entered the top-level design and has become the most important long-term national movement in the field of political life in my country at this stage. The problem of waste incineration and avoidance has become a key node in whether the relevant work can proceed smoothly and an important factor in determining the success or failure of waste classification.

The garbage incineration plant is open to the public, the installation of trees, the technical assistance of the garbage incineration plant, the special random inspection of the garbage incineration plant, the I am an environmental compliance swearing conference, the real-time disclosure of the garbage incineration monitoring data to the public, the automatic monitoring data can be used as a basis for punishment, etc. a series of special measures and work follow one after another, and waste incineration companies have also been pushed to the forefront of environmental public opinion circles.

Then, after nearly four years of combined fist-style intensive remediation, how effective is the remediation of waste incineration? It is urgently needed a professional third party to carry out relevant assessment work.

On December 30, 2020, the Environmental and Development Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "Evaluation Report on the Effect of Special Remediation of Waste Incineration Power Generation Industry" in Beijing.

The report shows that after three years of special rectification actions, the number of complaints from garbage incineration companies has dropped by 70%. In particular, the objection and complaints of the sites with the strongest neighborhood sentiment dropped by 90% year-on-year; complaints about bad smells dropped by 45%.

Both the furnace temperature compliance rate and the flue gas compliance rate of incineration enterprises have increased significantly, and the cases of exceeding the standards have been greatly reduced.

National waste incineration enterprises, investment in environmental protection funds totaled 4.37 billion yuan in 2019. Remediation brings both social and economic effects of enterprises improved. The remediation has brought about an increase in both the social and economic effects of companies, and companies that intend to compete at low prices by reducing environmental protection costs are excluded from the threshold and the industry has developed in a healthy and orderly manner, production capacity has continued to expand, profit margins have remained stable, and operating income growth has exceeded operating costs.

The leader of the research group, Mr. Li Yuhong, accepted the interview with Qingqi Group and agreed that Qingqi Group should extract and publish relevant important information in the WeChat official account article.

Teacher Li Yuhong said that the work related to this assessment report has received strong support from relevant departments of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, especially the support of big data.

The research team obtained the automatic monitoring data of all waste incineration enterprises from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment from 2017 to the present, and also obtained a large number of public complaints and letters and visits related to waste incineration. At the same time, it conducted field investigations on a number of waste incineration companies and issued a large number of industry survey questionnaires. It also conducted in-depth interviews with several NGOs, including the Wuhu Ecological Center, that have long been concerned about waste incineration and neighbor avoidance issues.

These materials and information, in terms of breadth and depth, should be second to none in similar domestic research fields, and the conclusions and expositions of related reports are quite solid and credible.

1.The furnace temperature compliance rate has increased significantly, and the protection of dioxin emission reduction has increased

Whether the furnace temperature reaches 850 ℃ is the key monitoring factor to control the formation of dioxins in the process of waste incineration. For a long time, some waste incineration enterprises were criticized and opposed by some NGOs because the furnace temperature failed to meet the normal standards, resulting in excessive dioxin emissions. This has also become the original sin of the waste incineration industry in China. Therefore, the increase and stability of the furnace temperature compliance rate is an important guarantee for the emission reduction of dioxin and other persistent organic matter.

After comparing a large number of furnace temperature data from nearly 278 waste incineration enterprises from 2017 to 2020, the research team concluded that in 2017, the original furnace temperature exceeded the standard by 8.9%, the average five-minute furnace temperature exceeded the standard by 6.4%, the incinerator temperature control ability is insufficient, the furnace temperature exceeded the standard rate is high.

After four years of renovation, the rate of furnace temperature exceeding the standard has been greatly reduced. In 2020, the original furnace temperature exceeding rate has dropped to 1.5%, and the five-minute average furnace temperature has basically reached the standard.

Garbage incineration has seasonal rules. The temperature is low in winter and high in summer. All these factors will affect the calorific value of garbage and the heating of furnace body. Prior to the renovation, the monthly excess rate in the winter of 2017 was 2.1 percentage points higher than that in the summer; as the renovation progressed, the seasonal difference was significantly reduced. The rate of excess furnace temperature in the winter of 2019 did not rebound, but remained relatively stable.

There are also huge differences in the level of operation of waste incineration companies, which will also lead to inconsistencies in the temperature control levels of different companies, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has also specially sent a large number of experts in the system to form a special waste incineration company technology. The assistance team, door-to-door to help companies improve their operating levels, is also a small stove dedicated to waste incineration companies in the series of rectification measures of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The research team found that before the remediation, the original furnace temperature excess rate of the waste incineration enterprise groups was different, but with the deepening of the remediation, the gap continued to shrink, and the original furnace temperature excess rate of most enterprise groups generally declined. In 2017, the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the over-standard rates of various enterprise groups reached 31.9 percentage points. In 2020, the gap will be reduced to 5.9 percentage points.

Before the remediation, the original furnace temperature control level of incinerators in various provinces, cities and regions across the country was quite different. The rate of exceeding the standard in the eastern region was relatively low. Liaoning, Hainan, and Shanghai have only 0.35%, 0.55%, and 0.60% of incinerator temperature exceeding standards, which are among the top three in the country. The western regions have higher exceeding standards, especially Xinjiang and Xinjiang Construction Corps.

After special rectification, the area where the original furnace temperature exceeded the standard rate has dropped significantly, and the progress has been significant. For example, in 2017, the original furnace temperature exceeding rate of incinerators in Gansu, Hunan, Anhui, Jilin, Yunnan and Jiangxi was higher than the national average, and in 2020 it will be reduced to below the national average. It can be seen that through rectification, areas with relatively backward compliance rates have quickly narrowed the gap with regions with high compliance rates.

In addition, the special rectification has also increased the proportion of single furnaces with a five-minute average furnace temperature. In 2017, 540 of the 564 incinerators had records of non-compliance, and only 4% of the incinerators reached the standard;

With the deepening of rectification, the proportion of meeting the standard has gradually increased, increasing to 11% and 14% in 2018 and 2019 respectively; in 2020, the proportion of meeting the standard will be further increased. Among the 1,145 incinerators, 875 incinerators met the standard, and the proportion of meeting the standard rose to 76%, an increase of 62 percentage points from 2019.

2. Five pollutants meeting standards have increased

In fact, in addition to dioxins, the waste incineration process also produces five major air pollution components: nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide.

The evaluation report shows that the special rectification has increased the percentage of the five pollutants discharged by the incinerator in the hourly average compliance rate and reduced the percentage of over-standard hourly average emissions.

In 2017, five pollutants such as soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen chloride had a low percentage of meeting the hourly average value. Incinerators that met all five pollutants only accounted for 8.1% of the total number of furnaces. With the deepening of rectification, the proportion of meeting the standard gradually expanded.

In the first three quarters of 2020, the percentage of incinerators with all five pollutant discharge hourly averages meeting the standard was 71.5%, a considerable increase.

In addition, the number of times that the discharge of five pollutants exceeds the standard has dropped even more. In 2017, the average monthly discharge of five pollutants per incinerator exceeded the standard 32 times in total. In 2018, it was 17 times. In 2020, it dropped rapidly to 0.18 times.

The daily average compliance rate has increased significantly. In the first three quarters of 2020, the average daily compliance rate of emissions of soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen chloride will all reach 99.99%. Compared with 2017, the compliance rate increased by 2.03, 1.11, 1.39, 6.77 and 1.55 percentage points respectively.

3. All kinds of neighbor avoidance complaints have greatly reduced

During the special rectification process, the number of newly built waste incinerators and waste incinerators in my country is gradually increasing, but the rate of public complaints about waste incineration has started to drop significantly year by year;

From January to August 2020, there were 62 complaints against domestic waste incineration power generation projects across the country, a decrease of 43.6% compared with the same period in 2019 (more than 100 complaints) and a decrease of 69.5% compared with the same period in 2018 (more than 200 complaints).

The number of complaints across provinces and regions has generally decreased. For example, in 2018, the number of environmental complaints against incinerators in Guangdong was 88, and in 2019 it was reduced to 16; Hainan dropped from 55 to 23, and Hubei dropped from 54 in 2018 to 15 in 2019.

In particular, the most prominent complaints against the site selection or expansion of waste incineration projects in the neighbor avoidance movement have greatly reduced. In 2018, there were 293 complaints against project site selection and expansion across the country; in 2019, the number was reduced to 92, a decrease of 68.6% from 2018. From January to August 2020, there were only 8 complaints against site selection and expansion across the country, a decrease of 93.7% compared with the same period in 2018.

Odor and peculiar smell are the number one culprit who hates domestic waste incineration plants most by surrounding residents, and they are most likely to arouse residents' disgust and dissatisfaction. Since 2017, 50% of the complaints reflect peculiar smell or foul smell. After the special rectification, such complaints also dropped rapidly.

In 2018, there were 91 complaints about peculiar smells and malodors across the country. In 2019, the number was reduced to 41. From January to August 2020, the number of complaints nationwide was 22, a decrease of 45% from the same period in 2018.

Night-time environmental pollution complaints dropped, reaching 68 in 2018; it was reduced to 34 in 2019; from January to August 2020, there were only 10 cases, a decrease of 67.7% from the same period in 2018.

4. Promote enterprises to increase investment in environmental protection hardware and improve environmental management capabilities

After on-site investigations and large-scale questionnaire surveys, the research team found that the remediation actions have prompted the incineration enterprises to increase their environmental protection investment levels, and have also improved their environmental management capabilities, and have gradually stabilized their emission standards.

Before the special rectification, some waste incineration enterprises often had insufficient environmental protection investment to cause excessive emissions, such as aging flue gas purification equipment, untimely updating, and cutting corners in operation and maintenance materials.

After the remediation, in order to achieve compliance with emissions, companies must make up for their historical debts, and all of them attach great importance to "filling shortcomings" in environmental protection hardware to ensure that environmental protection investment and operation are put in place, and the environmental protection facilities of company are operating normally.

According to the research team's statistics, in 2019, a total of 318 companies in the domestic waste incineration power generation industry invested 4.37 billion yuan in environmental protection funds for meeting emission standards, upgrading and upgrading technical equipment, and strengthening management.

Among them, the number of enterprises with an investment of more than 100 million yuan in environmental protection accounted for 3% of the number of enterprises and 50% of the investment funds. These companies have been in production for a long time, are facing the demand for equipment replacement, and have high environmental protection investment.

Enterprises with environmental protection investment of more than 10 million yuan and less than 100 million yuan accounted for 18%, and investment capital accounted for 37%, with an average investment of 30 million yuan per enterprise. Such corporate funds are mainly used to update and maintain key environmental protection equipment.

Companies with an investment of between 1 million and 10 million in environmental protection accounted for 48%, and the investment scale accounted for 12%, with an average investment of 3.7 million yuan per company. Such enterprise funds are used for bag dust removal transformation or replacement, monitoring equipment update and upgrade, fly ash solidification storage, and environmental protection consumables, etc.

Companies with an environmental protection investment of less than 1 million yuan accounted for 31%, and the scale of investment accounted for 1%. Each company invested an average of 420 thousand yuan. This is mainly due to some newly-built enterprises, which have been put into operation late, with novel equipment and low maintenance costs, mainly for routine maintenance.

Compensation of arrears for environmental protection investment includes not only the renewal of machinery and equipment, but also the daily operating costs of environmental protection.

From the perspective of flue gas purification costs, the questionnaire data shows that the industry's flue gas purification input in 2016 accounted for the median of 7.2% of operating costs; the median proportion of operating costs in 2018 reached 9.1%, and in 2019 it reached 10.7%. Therefore, a medium-sized company's environmental operating costs should account for more than 10% of its operating costs.

Remediation has promoted the hardware upgrade of waste incineration enterprises, and at the same time promoted the soft power of environmental management of enterprises.

First, the special rectification has improved corporate environmental compliance awareness.

The survey found that the "Administrative Regulations on the Application of Automatic Monitoring Data for Domestic Waste Incineration Power Plants" has a greater impact on enterprises. Renewable energy electricity price additional subsidy funds and value-added tax refund policies are linked to environmental violations, and companies have deeply felt the importance of pollutant control and the pressure of environmental protection.

The interviewed companies all reported that no matter what environmental violations the company has committed, the punishments they receive are very serious and unbearable. Companies are not only fined for environmental violations, but also suffer greater losses in terms of value-added tax and additional subsidies for renew

Severe punishment for environmental violations is sufficient to produce a sufficient deterrent and warning effect on enterprises. For the purpose of protecting their own interests, companies will consciously increase their awareness of law-abiding and strive to avoid environmental violations.

Second, the company has strengthened its internal environmental management.

The survey found that some companies have strengthened environmental performance management, and by publicizing the economic and legal responsibilities of environmental violations, the company’s environmental performance is directly related to employee performance. Corporate leaders and employees attach great importance to environmental compliance work and incorporate environmental compliance into daily operation and management work.

According to the findings of the survey, the company attaches great importance to the serious consequences of exceeding the standard and has adopted stricter internal management measures than the No. 10 Order. Order No. 10 stipulates that the period of time for incinerators marked as "shutdown" shall not exceed 60 hours, which is 5 hours per month, but the period of internal control of an enterprise shall not exceed 2 hours per month.

Third, the company actively carried out the construction of corporate culture and improved the sense of responsibility of employees for environmental performance.

The company has adopted measures such as plant beautification, office area improvement, team building, advanced collective evaluation, etc., to increase employees' sense of pride and responsibility, increase their sense of responsibility for work, and correspondingly improve the efficiency of corporate pollutant discharge compliance work .

In order to improve the social image, some companies actively promote to the public, apply for environmental protection public open demonstration units, and regularly open visits to surrounding residents, such as launching public open days, inviting representatives of citizens from all walks of life to visit the factory.

At the same time, companies maintain effective communication with surrounding residents, village governments, townships, and police stations, and establishes good cooperative relations with each other. Some companies have begun to pay attention to building a friendly community culture, such as building sports parks around the project, focusing on greening, bringing certain benefits and convenience to the surrounding communities, turning the company's negative externalities into positive externalities, and changing the "neighbor avoidance" effect to the "neighbor benefit" effect.

Fourth, rectify and promote the healthy development of the industry.

Increasing investment in environmental protection software and hardware will inevitably increase the cost of waste incineration companies. Will the remediation actions have an impact on corporate profits?

The research team believes that, from the perspective of economic effects, the rectification has a short-term impact on corporate profitability, but the profitability of the enterprise rebounded quickly after the shortcomings in environmental protection were supplemented. Due to the good growth of the industry, with more companies entering and fewer exiting companies, employment in the industry continues to grow; industry production capacity continues to maintain a trend of rapid expansion.

5. Profit margin first declines and then rises, operating income growth exceeds cost growth

In the early stage of the renovation, the profitability of the incineration plant was affected to a certain extent, but as the renovation deepened, the gross profit margin of company quickly recovered. In 2016, the company’s average gross profit margin was 38.2%. It began to decline in 2017, dropped to the lowest point of 31.4% in 2018, and rebounded to 36.4% in 2019. In the first three quarters of 2020, the company's average gross profit margin remained at 36.6%. The industry basically maintained a stable profitability level.

The average operating income of waste incineration plants increased from 80.89 million yuan in 2016 to 111.92 million yuan in 2019, an increase of 38.4%; the average operating cost increased from 54.13 million yuan in 2016 to 72.58 million yuan in 2019, an increase of 34.1%. The increase in operating income exceeded the cost.

According to statistics from China's fourth national economic census, waste incineration belongs to the field of biomass power generation. From the perspective of profitability, the profitability of the biomass power generation industry is higher than the general level of the power generation industry.

In 2018, the operating income of the biomass power generation industry was 37.52 billion yuan, the operating cost was 27.69 billion yuan, and the gross profit rate was 26.2%, which was 4.8 percentage points higher than the average profit rate of the power production industry.

6. Remedying "open small stoves", and the orderly and healthy development of garbage incineration

As the waste incineration power generation industry has the characteristics of people’s livelihood, the special rectification has not taken the usual measures of "closing, stopping, merging, and transferring" against illegal pollutants. Instead, it guides companies in terms of technology and management to help them achieve emission standards. Only those companies that have no hope of meeting the standards will stop production and close measures.

Therefore, the number of companies shut down during the special rectification of the waste incineration power generation industry is far less than that of other industries. At the same time, the special rectification not only did not slow down the development speed of the waste incineration power generation industry, on the contrary, with the deepening of the special rectification, it has promoted the corporate emission standards and achieved the unity of corporate economic and social benefits，the industry's path to high-quality development, and the capacity of the waste incineration power generation industry has shown an accelerated growth trend.

In 2019, there were 389 incineration plants with a daily processing capacity of 456,000 tons. The daily incineration processing capacity increased by 25.2% over 2018, which was 6 percentage points higher than the average growth rate from 2016 to 2018.

The previous big data research report of waste incineration series released by Qingqi Group also shows that during the six years from 2015 to 2020, waste incineration has completely entered the climax of commissioning. Over the past six years, 195 cities have built new incinerators and incinerators, and put into operation waste incineration projects with a total capacity of 399,700 tons per day, 50 percent higher than the total capacity of the previous 15 years.

7. Innovate the environmental supervision model and solve the difficult problems

The waste incineration power generation project belongs to the people's livelihood project, which is closely related to everyone and has a greater impact on the residents around the facility. Therefore, the pollution problem of this industry is extremely sensitive. The pollution problem of any incineration plant is not handled well, and it can be easily amplified through the media and the Internet, triggering huge public opinion and causing negative social impact. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment attaches great importance to the environmental pollution problem of the waste incineration power generation industry. In the special rectification action, it has created new supervision and law enforcement models in response to the difficulties and blockages in environmental law enforcement. These experiences are worthy of summary and promotion.

These experiences include

First, automatic monitoring data is used as evidence for law enforcement to fully activate "big data" assets.

Make full use of the "precision" and "scientific" characteristics of big data to implement all-round and full-process real-time monitoring of excessive emissions, providing a powerful means for law enforcement supervision, and organically combining "online monitoring" and "offline law enforcement" , effectively achieving precise, scientific and legal pollution control.

Second, the "one pole in the end" management model improves the environmental supervision capabilities of weak areas.

According to the provisions of the Environmental Protection Law, the environmental authorities of local governments at the county level and above are responsible for the environmental quality of the region.

However, the management capabilities of local environmental authorities are uneven. Large cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen have relatively high environmental management capabilities, while small and medium-sized cities and county-level governments have relatively weak environmental supervision capabilities.

The current practical problem is that most domestic waste incineration power generation companies are located outside of urban built-up areas, that is, near villages in the outer suburbs and suburban counties, which increases the difficulty of environmental supervision.

At this stage, it is not enough for some regions to rely solely on the supervision of local environmental authorities.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has adopted a vertical management model of "one pole in the end" for the domestic waste incineration power generation industry. This is the only industry where the Ministry of Ecology and Environment directly participates in supervision and law enforcement.

The Law Enforcement Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment supervises the pollutants and furnace temperature exceeding records of each incinerator based on the enterprise's automatic monitoring data; implements electronic supervision to remind incineration plants to investigate and deal with problems in a timely manner, and urge local environmental authorities to verify and deal with suspected environmental violations.

This vertical management model organically integrates the central and local environmental supervision forces, with a clear division of labor between "sections" and "blocks", which makes up for the shortcomings of the county-level environmental authorities' inadequate environmental supervision of domestic waste incineration power generation enterprises, and effectively enhances the environmental supervision capabilities of areas where local environmental law enforcement is weak.

Third, carry out multi-departmental joint law enforcement to improve corporate awareness of compliance.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, the Energy Bureau, and the State Administration of Taxation, linked the excess emissions of household waste incineration power generation companies with renewable energy power generation subsidies and value-added tax refunds. This measure has a leverage effect, greatly amplifies the illegal costs of enterprises, constitutes a strong deterrent to enterprises, transmits the pressure of pollutant discharge to enterprises, and fully mobilized the subjective willingness of enterprises to actively abide by the law and actively meet the standards, transforming "I want to abide by the law" into "I want to abide by the law."

Increasing illegal costs also makes it more difficult to enter the industry. Companies that intend to bid at low prices by reducing environmental investment costs and operation and maintenance costs are excluded from the threshold, optimizing the business environment, helping to create a clean government-enterprise relationship, and creating a fair and transparent market competition atmosphere.

Fourth, the rigid law enforcement and flexible law enforcement are combined, and the regulatory authorities help promote enterprises to meet emission standards.

Domestic waste incineration power generation enterprises have the characteristics of people's livelihood, and they cannot be shut down for enterprises that do not meet the standards. Therefore, in the special rectification, information means are fully utilized to implement electronic supervision on abnormal emissions of incineration plants, and "pre-warning" and "in-process scheduling" are adopted to remind incineration plants to pay attention to abnormal conditions and take measures in advance to make rectification, so as to avoid being punished for environmental violations.

In addition, technical assistance is another flexible law enforcement measure.

Some companies lack technical capabilities and cannot find technical methods to continuously ensure the effective operation of pollution control facilities and the stable discharge of pollutants. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has organized technical experts to provide on-site guidance to help companies achieve discharge standards.

Flexible law enforcement has changed the previous hostile relationship between government environmental authorities and enterprises, which was like "cats and mice". Instead, it has become a collaborative relationship in which the government and enterprises have the same goals and the government helps enterprises achieve emission standards.

Fifth, environmental information is disclosed to the whole society, and social supervision is strengthened.

Environmental governance requires not only "top-down" environmental supervision by government departments, but also "bottom-up" active participation by all sectors of society, forming a resultant force of "upper" and "lower" coordination, "upper" and "lower" checks and balances.

Environmental information disclosure is an important means to expand citizens' right to know and social forces to participate in environmental governance. Starting from January 2, 2020, the daily average values and furnace temperature of the five conventional pollutants in the incineration plant will be concentrated on the website of the Pollution Source Monitoring Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the company's pollution discharge information will be disclosed to the whole society.

Through the website, residents around the company can supervise the company’s emissions, and news media, NGOs, scientific research institutions, and residents can obtain data through the Internet and use pollutant emissions data to report and conduct scientific research on the company’s excess emissions. It has greatly facilitated the public's supervision of enterprise pollution, expanded citizens' right to know, strengthened social supervision, and formed a trend of national supervision for domestic waste incineration power generation enterprises.

Sixth, establish a long-term law enforcement mechanism, and enterprises will be more law-abiding and self-disciplined.

In the past, special rectification actions generally adopted sports and carpet inspections, which were powerful and effective. However, due to the short action time, the measures taken are short-term emergency measures, leading some companies to wait and see to the government's pollution control actions and adopt anti-theme response strategies. Therefore, after many special rectifications, the problem of illegal sewage discharge by enterprises often resurfaces.

Over the course of three years, China has gradually established a long-term mechanism for monitoring, supervising and punishing pollutant emissions, normalized and institutionalized temporary special rectification actions, and established a complete system of law enforcement and supervision for industrial pollution prevention and control.

A sound law enforcement system has prompted enterprises to form stable expectations for government law enforcement. They no longer have a fluke, household mentality, and rogue mentality, but instead focus on adopting various measures to effectively reduce pollutant emissions, and enterprises have significantly enhanced law-abiding self-discipline.

Generally speaking, the assessment report has given a high evaluation of the three years of special crackdown, and the conclusions and results of the relevant research, as well as the amount of waste incintation in the organization of the air mass and Shanghai qingyi, have been studied, with high levels of convergence.

The special rectification of waste incineration has brought about the improvement of the compliance and safety of waste incineration emissions, reduced the complaints of people from neighbors, and gave birth to a long-term mechanism for enterprises to focus on environmental governance and investment. The government has also taken this to create a more advanced and stricter waste incineration management model, realizing the long-term unification of environmental and economic benefits.

Suggestions and outlook

The research team also gave many suggestions to the environmental management department on the follow-up management model and work. The relevant opinions are also highly endorsed by the Qingqi Group and related NGO organizations and enterprises in the waste incineration industry.

The research team recommends:

First, in order to further reduce the environmental risks of the incineration plant, so that the surrounding residents can be completely assured, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the environmental supervision of the incineration plant must not be relaxed.

In particular, we should focus on areas with weak environmental supervision. From a spatial perspective, large cities with strong environmental supervision capabilities and local standards higher than national standards, such as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, can be subject to local supervision. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment should shift the focus of supervision to the central and western regions and small and medium-sized cities, to incinerators with records of exceeding standards.

Second, strengthen environmental supervision over the entire industry chain.

The regulation of secondary solid wastes, such as fly ash and slag, which are not easy to attract people's attention, but are more harmful, is relatively weak. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, environmental law enforcement should lay out the entire industrial chain of the domestic waste incineration power generation industry, and strengthen the supervision of pollutants such as fly ash and slag.

At present, the automatic monitoring data website of waste incineration plants discloses the basic information of the enterprise, the daily average concentration of five pollutants discharge and the temperature of the furnace, but it lacks manual monitoring data information.

Regarding the concentration of dioxins and heavy metals that the public is concerned about, and the destination of hazardous waste such as fly ash, centralized information disclosure has not yet been achieved. It is recommended to add dioxin, heavy metal emission concentration, slag and fly ash treatment information on the automatic monitoring data disclosure website of waste incineration plants to further improve the completeness, comprehensiveness and convenience of corporate environmental information disclosure, and provide convenience for the public to obtain relevant information .

Third, moderately reduce the burden of environmental monitoring costs for SMEs.

The "Pollution Control Standard for Domestic Waste Incineration (GB 18485-2014)" requires companies to monitor the surrounding environment by themselves and monitor the dioxin in the flue gas at least once a year. In fact, regardless of the size of the company, dioxin is monitored once a year. In large cities such as Beijing, companies are required to monitor once a quarter, each time around 100,000 per furnace, plus the monitoring of heavy metals and other pollutants. The cost of monitoring is hundreds of thousands to millions per year.

This is a heavier burden for small and medium-sized enterprises, and companies must choose the best time for the incinerator to run their own monitoring, and the test results are up to the standard, so the test is of little significance. It is recommended to strengthen government supervision and random inspections based on the scale of enterprises and historical records of exceeding standards to effectively strengthen industry self-discipline and reduce the operating costs of SMEs.

Fourth, the elimination of the "neighbor avoidance" effect requires the concerted efforts of all departments.

These complaints involve many different departments, and social issues such as demolition and relocation are more complicated. The resolution of these problems is beyond the jurisdiction of the competent department of ecological environment, but the object of the complaint is related to environmental protection. For such problems, the cooperation of various government departments and enterprises is required.

When it comes to demolition, the principle of facilitating the production and living of the villagers and the demolition of the entire village should be taken as the principle to meet the reasonable needs of the villagers as much as possible and reduce social instability.