• Login | Sign Up
  • Current situation and problem analysis of Hazardous waste recycling in the context of classification

    GB/T 19095-2019 Domestic waste classification mark gives a clear definition of hazardous waste: hazardous waste refers to garbage containing harmful substances that require special safe treatment, including batteries, lamps and daily chemicals that cause direct or potential harm to human health or the natural environment. Hazardous waste is usually reactive, infectious, flammable and corrosive, and if not properly classified and treated, it will cause pollution to soil, air, surface water and groundwater, thereby threatening human health.

    By the end of 2020, 237 cities at the prefecture level and above across the country had started garbage classification, and 46 key cities had classified community solid waste, mainly kitchen waste, other waste, recyclables and hazardous waste, with a coverage rate of 86.6%. With the advancement of domestic waste classification, the separation rate of kitchen waste and recyclables has gradually increased. However, as one of the compulsory classification of domestic waste, the proper disposal amount and proper disposal rate of hazardous waste are still low.

     

    01. Hazardous waste source generation characteristics

    Through the relevant information of hazardous waste in the literature and combined with the results of on-site investigation, it can be seen that the current proportion of hazardous waste generated in the total domestic waste generation in the collection range of offices, residential households, residential communities and cities in urban areas in China is about 0.90%, 0.70% ~ 0.80%, 0.03% ~ 1.58% and 0.04% ~ 1.30%, respectively, the main types are waste batteries, waste fluorescent tubes, expired drugs, pesticides, paint.

     

    02. Development trend of resourcing technologies for recyclable materials

    2.1 Proper disposal rate and main components of hazardous waste

    At present, the classification, recycling and treatment categories of urban hazardous waste in China are mainly waste fluorescent lamps, waste batteries, and expired drugs. The proportion of recycled waste in the total amount of domestic waste is about 0.0004%~0.0021%, which is far lower than the proportion of hazardous waste generated at the source (0.04%~1.30%) in the above-mentioned literature survey, which also takes the city as the collection range, indicating that the actual proper disposal rate of hazardous waste is low, and there is still a large number of harmful wastes that have not been effectively treated.

    2.2 Current status of hazardous waste disposal

    At present, after classification, hazardous waste in China is usually sent by professional collection and transportation units to enterprises with corresponding hazardous waste business license qualifications for harmless treatment or resource utilization. Harmless treatment methods are divided into high temperature incineration and solidification landfill, hazardous waste with high organic content generally changes the physical, chemical, biological properties and physical composition of hazardous waste through high temperature incineration, so as to achieve harmless treatment. Solidified landfill means that in order to prevent the migration of harmful substances in garbage, hazardous waste is mixed with cement, solidified to form a solidified block, and then divided into categories for landfill.

     

    03. Problems

    The management system is not sound and the responsible entity is not clear. Insufficient residents' cognition, unreasonable design and equipment of classification equipment affect front-end classification. The whole process system of hazardous waste collection and transportation is not perfect. The level of hazardous waste disposal is low, and the role of market regulation is not fully exerted.

     

    04. Countermeasures and recommendations

    1. Establish and improve the hazardous waste classification management system, and improve the legal and regulatory system and guarantee system related to hazardous waste.

    2. Comprehensively carry out publicity activities on hazardous waste and strengthen awareness and education on hazardous waste.

    3. Improve the construction of hazardous waste infrastructure.

    4. Establish and improve the supporting supervision system for the whole process of hazardous waste classification, recycling, treatment and disposal.

    5. Improve the level of hazardous waste disposal and give full play to the role of market regulation.



    © 2020 Zhejiang University www.iccwte.org International Consultant Committee of Waste to Energy visits:352349