Overwhelming amount
Xu Hesheng, vice secretary of the Shanghai Construction and Development Association, said Shanghai generated 89 million tons of construction waste in 2015, about 240,000 tons every day, with the amount of waste growing constantly.
Besides, the city generates 20,000 tons of consumer waste each day.
Most of this garbage is recycled or disposed in the city, while some is recycled in neighboring provinces under relevant local governments' agreements.
Xu said while most Chinese provinces are able to deal with their own waste, China's four municipalities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, have more pressure in garbage disposal and recycling as they are densely populated and have booming economies.
"Shanghai is small in size, but always has a large amount of construction going on, generating massive amounts of construction debris," Xu told the China Youth Daily.
"The city's pricey and precious land has to be used for residences, commercial purposes, and farming. There is very little land left for garbage," he said.
Jiading district, where Huibin Port is located, is one example of an area facing an overwhelming tide of trash.
The district's landfill is located near its border with Taicang, Jiangsu Province. Just across the river from the landfill are 20 neighborhoods with around 10,000 residents who have to put up with the odor from the decomposing waste.
The landfill has dealt with 1,000 tons of garbage every day, but its first phase site has already exceeded its lifespan. Last February, the second phase of the landfill was approved and construction started, but this received strong protests from Taicang residents. A 1,500-ton per day waste-to-energy plant is now under construction.
Last October, a statement by the Jiading government said that it has decided to cancel the phase-two project and stop the use of the phase-one site by December of that year, also pledging to start ecologically restoring the site this year.
According to an anonymous source, an official in Jiading said that as the landfill has become unavailable, they have to transport the garbage away via ships.
Du Huanzheng, a waste management professor at Tongji University, told the China Youth Daily that there are two ways to solve the economic issues that stem from construction debris. While the government can provide subsidies, construction companies should also pay garbage management companies to handle their waste.
Last December, over 70 people were killed in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province after a mountain of construction waste and soil swept over dozens of residential buildings. Back then, media reported that Shenzhen generated 30 million cubic meters of construction waste each year, and the government was struggling to deal with it.
Before 2000, due to the area's relatively small number of construction projects, and as much construction debris was dumped in the city's low-lying areas, the city had relatively little pressure in terms of waste management. After 2006, as the construction of the city's subway continued, its real estate market boomed and the number of underground garages being excavated increased, the amount of soil and construction debris generated in Shenzhen increased enormously.
The place where Shenzhen's accident happened was one of the nine sites that local government had designated as waste processing zones, but as it was overwhelmed, waste was piled into a mountain and left unattended.
"Only if all parties have an interest in garbage recycling can it be successful, but such a cycle hasn't yet been established in China," he told China Youth Daily.
After the Taihu incident happened, the Shanghai municipal authorities stressed that all construction waste must be disposed of and recycled within the city limits. Now, each district has set up a construction waste transfer station which sorts the waste in order to boost its utilization rate.
In Hongkou district, around 10 workers sort 300 to 400 tons of garbage every day. Shen Genfa, head of the Hongkou station, told local television, "If we stop working for one or two days, this site will be overwhelmed and garbage will have to be piled outside the station."
But this will be temporary. According the 13th Five-Year Plan, Shanghai will soon introduce waste recycling machinery which will be able to deal with 7.5 million tons of waste each year.
