Introduction:
2023 is the eleventh year for Wuhu Ecology to insist on paying attention to waste incineration. It can be seen that the growth of the number of waste incineration plants has slowed down compared with the previous year, and at the same time, the phenomenon of "insufficient food" in waste incineration plants has become more and more prominent, which has brought new challenges to the development of the incineration industry.
As an environmental protection organization, the project team is still insisting on using information disclosure, field research and policy advocacy to promote the healthy development of the waste incineration industry. Under the framework of the new mission and vision, we will continue to improve the depth and breadth of our work, and deeply advocate for climate action-related work, including climate action observation of waste incineration brands, and monitoring of methane emissions from landfills**. At the same time, pay attention to the whole chain of waste treatment and carry out actions, such as rural garbage collection and transportation research, kitchen waste treatment information collection, etc.
In March 2023, the project team received news that there was a "garbage out-of-control" situation in many towns and villages in Pucheng County, Weinan Province, Shaanxi Province, where rural domestic waste was dumped, buried or even burned in the open air due to lack of collection and transfer. After the project team learned about it and confirmed the authenticity of the information, it was decided to go to Weinan for investigation.
We investigated 30 administrative villages, interviewed 20 relevant parties, and found that almost all of the 7 counties under the jurisdiction of Weinan City are an administrative village and a "garbage pit", even if there are terminal treatment facilities, the garbage can not be well collected and transported, and there are construction waste and domestic waste mixed stacking, domestic waste open burning, etc., domestic waste treatment has huge environmental risks.
At the end of the survey, the project team had two solutions in front of them. The first is to continue the previous work methods, according to the pollution problems found in the investigation, send the investigation report to the local ecological environment department, and promote the rectification of individual pollution problems. The second is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the problems found in the investigation, combine relevant policy research, and accelerate the construction of the rural domestic waste collection and transportation system in Weinan City through policy suggestions. In the end, the project team believed that solving the system problem was the key, so they chose the second option and submitted the "Research Report on the Domestic Waste Collection and Transportation System of Weinan City" to the Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress together with local partner institutions and representatives of the Provincial People's Congress.
At present, no obvious results have been found in the action of "uncontrolled garbage" in rural Weinan. On the one hand, for the first time, the project team focused on the "runaway garbage" in rural areas, and saw the rural garbage problem that is particularly easy to be overlooked; On the other hand, when writing the research report, a number of experts in garbage collection and transportation were interviewed, and a number of solutions were proposed in the report to improve the current situation of rural domestic waste collection and transportation.
After the implementation of the garbage classification policy, the construction of terminal treatment facilities for kitchen waste has attracted widespread attention. The proportion of garbage incineration in the country is more than 70%, and it is worth knowing how to better coordinate kitchen waste treatment and waste incineration. Therefore, the project team started a special study on kitchen waste treatment in 2023.
The project team has successively collected kitchen waste treatment information in 204 cities through the Internet, and subsequently submitted 294 information disclosure applications to the municipal solid waste authorities in various places, and obtained relevant information about kitchen waste treatment plants in 250 cities in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country, including the list of enterprises, treatment capacity, actual treatment capacity, treatment process and treatment subsidies. Through the analysis of relevant information, we can fully grasp the development process of national kitchen waste and the current actual treatment capacity.
In the process of information disclosure application, the project team established good interaction with the staff of a number of relevant departments, learned about the development of local kitchen waste treatment and the construction of related facilities, and added to each other to maintain long-term communication.
In addition, in order to obtain more comprehensive information about kitchen waste treatment, the project team also visited and communicated with a number of relevant parties of kitchen waste treatment, including kitchen waste treatment enterprises, waste oil related experts, industry consultants, waste classification practitioners, etc., to have a more comprehensive and systematic understanding of the kitchen waste treatment industry.
The development of the special project of kitchen waste treatment is for the project team to look at the waste problem from a "magnified perspective", not limited to the waste incineration industry. It is also an active response to the policy requirements related to garbage classification and advocating diversified waste disposal. In the next step, the project team will conduct more in-depth research on the kitchen waste treatment industry, release a national observation report, and promote the rational planning of waste treatment facilities across the country based on previous research on waste incineration planning.
In recent years, there has been controversy about whether waste incineration is a carbon emission or a carbon reduction company, and there is still no clear conclusion. In the past two years, the project team has also continued to pay attention to the climate action of the waste incineration industry, and gradually expanded to the attention of the waste treatment industry. On the one hand, the corporate climate action index developed by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) evaluates the climate action of waste incineration brands, and on the other hand, it is also studying the impact and control of "excavation and incineration" on climate change.
The evaluation of the corporate climate action index observes the official website of waste incineration brands, annual reports, ESG reports and other corporate information disclosure carriers, and evaluates them from five aspects: governance mechanism, measurement and disclosure, target setting, target performance and emission reduction actions. After two years of continuous observation, it is found that incineration brands have significantly improved in terms of climate action, but there is still a lot of room for improvement, and there has been no action in terms of first-chain carbon management and carbon performance.
With the in-depth attention and research on carbon emissions from waste incineration, it was found that in order to solve the problem of "insufficient food" in waste incineration plants, some cities have started the work of landfill excavation, which has aroused the attention of the project team to the supervision of landfill gas (mainly methane) in the landfill excavation process.
In 2023, in order to understand the supervision of landfill gas emissions in the current process of excavating landfills, the project team conducted field research on 7 landfills excavated in Anhui Province, and at the same time carried out information disclosure applications on methane monitoring in landfills in 4 provinces and cities, including Anhui Province. It was found that most landfills did not have landfill gas collection facilities during the excavation process, and the methane monitoring of closed or operating landfills was not fully implemented, and there was a large room for improvement.
The focus on landfill gas in landfills has led the project team to further see the shortcomings of the waste treatment industry in terms of carbon emission management. Carbon emissions are different from pollutant emissions, and there is currently a high degree of social and industry concern, but there is a lack of regulatory policies on carbon emissions.
At the same time, paying close attention to the carbon emissions of the waste treatment industry is an inevitable choice under the current general trend, and it is also an important "puzzle" for the project team to improve the incineration industry. In the next step, the project team will continue to pay attention to the carbon emissions of the waste treatment industry and actively respond to the national climate change action.
In the past 2023, we have opened up a number of work directions, and in the process of carrying out specific work, we have also felt the support and recognition of many waste disposal related parties.
During the special investigation of "runaway garbage" in rural Weinan, we visited the person in charge of the local waste incineration plant, and the other party said, "I have known you for a long time, and you are very professional in waste incineration". At the same time, it also comprehensively and in detail informed the local garbage collection and transportation system, which provided information support for the writing of follow-up research reports.
In the application for the disclosure of food waste treatment information, the city management department will say after learning about our work ideas: "I look forward to your research results can bring experience to our kitchen waste management"; "We started our garbage classification relatively late, and the terminal facilities have not been built, and we look forward to your policy suggestions to speed up the development of garbage classification."
In the letter of supervision, I also met an "old acquaintance" and told us: "I also handled the reply from two years ago, and I will ask what the situation is, and I will give you an answer after figuring it out." There are also those who express their gratitude to our supervision, "The problems you raised do exist, and we have also found out the reasons, and we will actively rectify them in the future."
During the visit of the experts, they also received a point in the specific direction of work, "Your research articles are very in-depth, and you can pay more attention to the issue of carbon emissions from waste incineration"; "The health costs of waste incineration, there can be some research". The advice of expert teachers is also the direction we are heading.
Finally, the past 2023 is a year of transformation for incineration projects. On the basis of maintaining the original direction of advocacy, the incineration project is more focused on the mission and vision of the organization, breaking through the shackles of the original working methods, closely focusing on the concept of pluralistic co-governance, environmental and economic balance, developing a number of special projects, and gradually starting to iterate from "waste incineration" to "waste treatment".
It is expected that one day in the future, we can officially announce that the waste incineration project of Wuhu Ecology has been completed and the waste treatment project has been officially formed. Of course, no matter how the project changes, we want to contribute to the continuous reduction of the environmental and health risks posed by waste disposal.