Waste management: A crucial issue for China's future

A short time ago Jean-Louis Chaussade, CEO of Suez Environment, traveled to China to inaugurate a third generation incineration plant especially designed for the treatment of hazardous waste. In an interview for the radio program Chine Hebdo, Chaussade reflected on the problem of waste management in China, a crucial issue for the future of the Middle Kingdom.

Suez Environment built an incinerator using the latest technology in the treatment of dangerous industrial waste in an industrial district in Shanghai. This 53 million euro project is a reflection of how urgent it is to upgrade China's waste management infrastructure and of how overdue the project is.

Upgrading China's waste management system is necessary because the country's continued economic growth translates into growing mounds of garbage. The country is running behind in this sector because it wasn't until the implementation of the Tenth Five-Year Plan six years ago that China started to give more weight to the issue of protecting the environment.

The construction of the new incinerator in the Shanghai industrial park serves as a perfect example. Within just a few years, the industrial center's petrochemical plants have spent over 6 billion euros on expanding their operations, and contributed significantly to the build up of mountains of toxic waste.

Unfortunately for China, the country does not yet have the sufficient waste treatment technology needed to handle such material. In Shanghai, for example, the current equipment is obsolete and the authorities are obliged to call on foreign enterprises to help them tackle the problem.

The incineration plant built by Suez is a step in the right direction to eventually replace the existing outdated infrastructure. The initial capacity of this plant with two lines capable of handling 30,000 tons of garbage each in an environmentally sound way by converting the burned waste into steam energy may soon be surpassed. Suez is currently considering adding a third line to increase the plant's capacity.

What about the rest of China?

The new incinerator built and operated by Suez Environment in Shanghai. (Image: Suez-environnement.fr)Earlier in the article, we mentioned China's Tenth Five-Year Plan. Since the implementation of the Eleventh Plan at the beginning of this year, the Chinese government has allocated over 70 billion euros for air and water pollution control efforts. But is it enough? Jean-Louis Chaussade asks.

French-based Suez Environment is well represented in China. In Hong Kong, the company primarily operates waste transfer stations and a system for handling large waste. In mainland China, on the other hand, it does not have waste management operations at present due to the local legislation.

Much remains to be done, but the Suez Environment executive affirms that the Asian giant is actively driving reforms in this sector. Chaussade also wants to emphasize that the Chinese government has committed itself to adopting waste management standards compatible with those in Europe. According to him, all the Chinese need now is the technology to enable them to respect these standards.

Confident that China will be successful in its task of modernizing its waste management system, Jean-Louis Chaussade says that "once they have the tools to do it, the standards will be met."