Beijing’s municipal government is planning to divert 40% of the city’s waste at waste to energy (WtE) facilities in as little as four years time, according to local reports.
This would be a 30% increase from the 2010 rate of 10% and the proposal could be implemented alongside separate collections for organic waste, to be recycled into fertilizer.
A report from China Daily cited Wang Yingjian from the municipal commission of development and reform stating: “We are planning to transform 55% of solid household waste into resources in the coming five years, and to increase the city’s daily disposal capacity to 30,000 tons.”
The municipal government reportedly said that currently 80% of waste from the city is sent to landfill, with 10% going through a “biochemical process” and the remaining 10% sent for incineration.
The China Urban Construction Design was also reported as saying such a target is not possible “without continuous measures to promote garbage sorting among the public, as kitchen waste will have to be classified and then made into organic fertilizer”.
Such ambitions form part of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), set out by the National People’s Congress - China’s legislature - that set out social and economic plans for the country over a five year period.
China’s plans to date for new WtE infrastructure include the Tianjin facility, a S$12.5 million (€6.5 million) contract awarded to Keppel Seghers subsidiary Keppel Integrated Engineering (KIE). Set for completion in 2012, the Tiajin plant will be able to treat 1000 tonnes of municipal waste per day.
This followed the Chengdu facility and Shenzhen plant expansion contracts also secured by the firm in China. The latter expansion will enable the facility to treat an additional 3000 tonnes to the existing 1200 tonnes of waste per day. Eventually set to treat 4,200 tonnes per day, Keppel Seghers said it will be the largest WtE plant in the country.
While WtE may be gathering pace in China, spurred by the regulatory five-year mandate, elsewhere in Asia the technology has been progressing at a quicker rate.
Singapore, for example, opened its fifth WtE facility last year: the first incinerator to be built and operated by the private sector in Singapore and the smallest municipal waste incineration plant in the city
