The Garbage Challenge in China - Essay Example

The Garbage Challenge in China It is of crucial significance to that in the last three decades, the China’s economy has experienced tremendous growth. Jiango and Diamond, have forecast the China’s level of economic growth as exceeding that of the United States (Liu and Jared, 4). However, this rapid economic growth has had a significant share of problems. One such problem is the high degree of waste the Chinese generate on a daily basis in the form of garbage. This situation has become an annoyance to the government in Beijing as they seek ways to address the challenge. Furthermore, the problem is formed as a result of the combination between the Chinese residents from Hong Kong and other cities such as Bolou and Tonghzou are against the idea of the government creating waste for energy plants. This is evident in both cities. Protests may always arise whenever governments set up to build such a facility (Liu and Jared, 5) In this regard, Chinese have come up with suggestions and ideas on how to handle and manage the thousands of garbage produced daily. Some of these suggestions and ideas include alternative ways of managing garbage such as incineration that provides an opportunity for electric power generation. This is associated with increased benefits to the economic growth and power demands. Incineration is the best alternative to manage garbage in China as it not only reduces the waste in landfills, but also offers opportunities for generating additional electric power to feed the country’s growing energy demands. Handling China’s expanding waste, which is a result of the rapidly growing middle class and double-digit economic growth rates every year, garbage disposal has become a challenge with which Chinese urban planners have been confronted. Garbage is dumped mostly in the areas in landfills, including food waste, construction rubble, and plastic packaging. The government has gradually agreed with garbage incineration as the principle way to dispose of waste, in spite of the disagreement of some people who are concerned about the effects of waste on the environment as described in the video ‘China-Drowning in Garbage Sludge’. This video argues that Beijing’s expansion has resulted in a trash problem that is causing air pollution even in residential areas. Garbage disposal stations once occupied the suburbs of cities, but more recently, small, temporary settlements have been rising up around the outside of towns. However, no waste management exists in these areas. According to Judith Shapiro’s article entitled “China’s Environmental Challenges” while China generates rubbish to a lesser extent per capita relative to other economies such as the United States, its cumulative generation is approximately 300 million tons per year (Shapiro 3). Relevant to the article above, China’s level of waste is the largest in the world, and is still on an upward trend. What’s more, the high rate of waste is attributed to China’s rising incomes and higher standards of living. Even in the biggest city, such as Beijing, the government has contended with the ever increasing volumes of waste. According to the government report as detailed by Hao and Wange, (2011), the years 2005 to 2010 proved very challenging to waste management team as they had to deal with an extra 3,900 tons of garbage, which was beyond the capacity of the city’s ability to treat it (Hao and Wange, 1214). In the Chinese capital of Beijing, many neglected neighborhoods such as Tonghzou have been used as illegal dumping sites for some years. In 2010, people rose up against the adverse effects of the landfills. The government was afraid of the media exposure and under public pressure and took out 10 billion yuan (equivalent of 1.6 billion US dollars) to clean up the illegal landfills that people focusing on. Although the Chinese government’s policy of garbage disposal is worthy of praise, China’s garbage problem remains acute in the country side (Dongpin, 15) Dongpin talks about a population of people named Xu Haiyun, a chief engineer working with the China Urban Construction Design Institute. Xu Haiyuan adds that the environmental problems caused by accumulating garbage will only cause increasingly more serious environmental issues because areas outside large cities like Tongzhou or Bolou, lack basic garbage classification and collection systems In connection to the lack of garbage management systems, it is important to note that employing incineration facilities to deal the problem of garbage in China has been met with different reaction with most of residents standing up to against the government’s plans. According to Buckley’s report 2004, in Southern China, residents were wary of the Government Protest a Plan to Burn Waste. Following the above, the Chinese government responded by launching energy-to-energy plan. Unfortunately, many of these projects are opposed by some people who were worried about the toxic by-products produced caused by the project’ activities. Many thought the plan would increase the risk of conflicts in considerable measures. That was the biggest challenge to the government since the citizens were losing trust with some of the authorities’ representatives at different levels of government. Even though there was extreme opposition about the project, the government vowed to push for its implementation to ensure that the energy plan benefits the people. Initially, the government planned to propose a new incinerator in Bolou County. The latest clash against government’s proposal took place in Bolou County, where the government promised its residents that the proposed incinerator would produce the electric power by burning about 700 metric tons of waste each day, but the residents were still unmoved (Chris & Buckley).The majority of the residents understand that the government commitment of installing pollution-free incinerator to minimize pollution might never be realized. Similarly, the same problem was also mentioned by Edward Humes in his book entitled “Garbology : Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash”. In the place of San Gabriel Valley, the American government decided to establish a factory that could transform waste landfill into power energy (Humes, 120). Although it could provide power for many aspects in local areas, the factory was not yet established over the years, because residents still objected to this proposal. In general, the residents of this county are fearful that the incinerators would not only cause water pollution, but more air pollution that would end up harming the residents. This is because the residents depend on water. Thus polluting water and air may lead to several water-borne as well as air-borne diseases that degrade the lives of the residents (Humes, 125). The government should also attach greater weight to this social issue through imposing policies, such as increasing environment taxes or limiting vehicles on the road to reduce exhaust emissions. Solid waste management authority notes that recycling of waste products offers a basic strategy for reducing the waste, (Zhang, et al, 23). Solving the problem has been difficult fundamentally by launching large scale incineration facilities. Some analysts have said to alert this action of launching large scale incineration facilities, and support the movement based on this behavior. Instead, they propose using a system that would target reducing the amount of trash that is generated. They further argue that the problem cannot be resolved by simply focusing on trash disposal. According to the statement, those companies responsible for packaging products, business organizations and public institutions must play a leading role in ensuring the recycle of plastic products. Consumers should always be encouraged to reuse products such as plastic bags for future trade. In fact, the government can come up with incentives through these business organizations where those people or organizations that re-use products such as paper bags are offered discounts. Another way of managing recyclable waste products is having a garbage collection system that would ensure that recyclable wastes are not dumped together with those that cannot be recycled. It then remains the responsibility of garbage collectors to take them to their respective destinations. But in China the people ignored garbage classification. They do not take it as their responsibility, so they are indifferent. Recycling of products is indeed a good practice since it helps in the reduction of spending and keeping environment clean and attractive. However, in China, majority of people is opposed to recycling. Some people don’t like to recycle old articles because they consider that this behavior may make they lose face. Kaihua County in Zhejiang Province offers a laudable plan of “bottom-up initiative” that promotes the use of a garbage classification and recycling approach in handling waste challenges. Starting from 2005, this County came up with garbage kits, organic garbage composting grounds, and landfills for inorganic and construction debris. The rotten organic waste may be employed in agricultural activities as it serves as natural composting. This ends up saving the farmers from extra costing of purchasing fertilizer as it keeps the soil fertile throughout the planting season. Another potentially effective strategy for dealing the garbage issues in countryside of China is to focus on the new ways to deal with rubbish that is landfill-to-energy generation, which would aid in resolving two pressing rural problems – that is lots of trash in landfills and shortage of energy. Incineration stands out as the best measure to deal with the waste danger. Big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, have already shown their support to the idea of incineration as a means to deal with garbage, and China is already in the process of coming up with many new plants that will burn the garbage while simultaneously generating energy (Zhang, 88). Cities are also rolling out technologies that transform landfills into an economic venture, including burning landfills gases to generate electric power that can be joined with the country’s power grid systems. Beijing, which estimates to have burnt only 10 percent of its trash as per 2010, has plans to increase this percentage to 15 percent by coming up with the largest incinerator in the whole of Asia. This is according to the case study conducted by Hao J and Wang L in September 2011 concerning air quality in China (Hao& Wang, 1299). What’s more, China is already engaged in an international initiative that seeks to tap into methane from landfill. This program is called Methane to Markets, and is a program done in collaboration with developing economies with the intention of advancing the recovery and used of methane as a source for energy. Using methane generated from landfills will greatly enhance the waste management process. In addition, there is a quick need for the Chinese government to modernize rural waste infrastructure. This could solve this problem, but it will require a significant amount of time, effort and money. In conclusion, the government must embrace the idea of modernizing rural waste relevant to incineration and power generation since this is amongst the ways that the country can keep up with recycling and disposal technologies. In addition, further research on various types of garbage is necessary so as to form the basis of determining those that are suitable for composting, energy conversion, or recycling. When I came back to China last time, I found the environment was rapidly deteriorating. Due to waste incineration and the discharge of heavy clouds of emissions, people can barely see the blue sky in some big cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which are shrouded in a pollution haze. Take Beijing for example. People living in the city need to wear face masks while outside, since the haze has put a serious effect on people’s health and may produce an increase in the risk of allergy and lung cancer. Now the government has been attaching greater weight to this social issue and has issued some policies, such as increasing environment taxes or limiting vehicles on the road to reduce exhaust emissions. Besides, the government begins to focus on new solutions for garbage disposal, such as garbage classification, sterilizing and processing them again instead of burning them. Works Cited Buckley, Chris. “In Southern China, Residents Wary of the Government Protest a Plan to Burn Waste”. New York Times, sept. 14, 2004, Print. Dongping, Yang. Urban Challenges, Public Participation, and Natural Disasters. Leiden: Brill, 2013. 176-179. Print. DW (English). “China - Drowning in Garbage and Sludge! | Global 3000.”YouTube.YouTube, 27 Aug.2012 ,10 Nov .2014 Hao J, and Wang Wang L. Air Air Quality in China. Case study. Publishing, September, 2011. Humes, Edward. Garbology: Our Dirty Affair with Trash. NewYork: Avery, 2013. Print. Liu, Jianguo, and Jared Diamond. "Chinas environment in a globalizing world." Nature 435.7046 (2005): 1179-1186. Shapiro, Judith. Chinas Environmental Challenges. Polity Press, 2012. Print. Video. Retrieved from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvubC9QL2mo Wang, Hua, et al. "Municipal solid waste management in small towns: an economic analysis conducted in Yunnan, China." (2011), Print. Zhang, Dong Qing, Soon Keat Tan, and Richard M. Gersberg. "Municipal solid waste management in China: Status, problems and challenges." Journal of Environmental Management 91.8 (2010): 1623-1633. Read More