Turn waste into treasure - talk about waste logistics

China has been recognized as the "world processing factory" in the 21st century. After China's accession to the WTO, some restrictive measures have gradually been eliminated. Foreign logistics service companies have entered the domestic market and continue to increase their market share. The logistics industry has become a new industrial sector of the national economy and has become an important economic growth point for China’s major industries and national economy in this century. However, at present, there is very little research and application of waste logistics in China. This reminds people of the “pollution first and then governance” path that China’s early industrial development has adopted. In the face of increasing waste, can we make it Become a special commodity, turn waste into treasure? Let waste logistics take the path of industrialization? This is an important issue that China should study and face.

Undeveloped treasure

Waste refers to emissions that are generated during production, construction, daily life, and other social activities and that are essentially or completely lost in use within a certain period of time and space and cannot be recycled or used. At the same time, according to the provisions of GB, waste logistics refers to commodities that lose their original use value in economic activities, and they are collected, classified, processed, packaged, handled, stored, etc. according to actual needs, and are sent to specialized places. The physical flow of items. In actual production activities, people are concerned about the use of this part of the goods that still exist, that is, recycling logistics. However, in many of the emissions, a portion of which can be recycled for recycling is referred to as renewable resources; the other is emissions that have lost the value of reuse and can only be incinerated and buried as waste. Renewable resources have gradually been recovered due to social progress and people’s increased awareness of environmental protection. They are re-entering the production and consumption fields through sorting, processing, and decomposition. For the waste produced in production and life, the current domestic processing methods and the degree of emphasis are far from enough. Because of the loss of its use value, modern logistics companies rarely care about it. Of course, this is also not uncommon with China’s current environmental protection system. relationship.

Raise awareness, change ideas, and promote the development of waste logistics

From the analysis of the limited social resources, various kinds of materials required by human society come from the natural world. With the progress of human society, the improvement of people’s living standards and the diversity of consumer demand have led to an increase in the amount of natural resources excavated by human beings, and some non-renewable natural resources have been gradually reduced. Therefore, considering the scarcity of resources, Mankind must consider the protection of resources and the recycling of recyclable waste. The research and practice of waste logistics thus formed has a positive effect on the development of the entire social civilization.

From the perspective of environmental protection, due to the fact that part of the waste is recyclable, the rest of the waste has lost its use value, and many production wastes contain substances that are harmful to the human body. If they are not dealt with in time, they will affect people’s The entire living environment. This is especially the case in cities where the population density is high, the number of companies is large, and the amount of waste emissions is high. Waste that is directly discharged into the natural world without treatment will seriously affect the agricultural soil, vegetation and drinking water sources. Therefore, it must be handled to make waste resources become a profitable industry, and gradually market-oriented; not only to achieve waste reproduction, while increasing the number of employed people, these have been implemented in some developed countries, so it is of great research value.

From the viewpoint of sustainable development, at the macro level, the essence of sustainable development is the pursuit of harmony between man and nature. The definition of "sustainable development" given by the World Commission on Environment and Development in its report "Our Common Future" in 1987 is: Sustainability is to meet the needs of the contemporary people and not to satisfy future generations. Their own needs are impaired. Sustainable development in the 1990s became a global consensus. It is precisely because people have recognized the limited nature of social resources, so there is a reference to "circular economy", namely "resources - products - renewable resources." Jiang Zemin once pointed out: "We must not waste resources and follow the road to pollution first, and we must not eat children and create children and grandchildren." Therefore, from the point of view of national long-term development, the effective disposal of waste must be strengthened.

The status of domestic waste logistics

Relevant information shows that two-thirds of the 600 cities in China are surrounded by garbage. During the period from 1982 to 1989, the per capita production of garbage in urban areas was 0.4-0.6 kg, and in 1990 it was 0.76 kg. In 1999, it exceeded 0. .8kg. From the perspective of annual production, the national municipal solid waste output was 67.66 million tons in 1990, and it increased at a rate of 7%--9% per year, reaching 108 million tons in 1996, but less than 2% of harmless disposal. In 2000, the harmless rate was less than 5%. Despite China’s introduction of relevant laws and regulations, people’s perceptions, the sense of responsibility of waste producers, and the currently unsound legal and regulatory systems of waste disposal facilities in China have created layers of obstacles. The separation of departments and regions has led to the current embarrassing situation of many wastes being left unattended and unmanned.

The level of waste treatment in China is relatively backward compared to developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and Germany. For example, the classification of waste from production and the source of domestic waste, and the classification and disposal of waste that can be recycled and reused and waste that cannot be recycled and reused There is no in-depth propaganda and strict standards. As far as the status quo is concerned, many of the recyclable materials in the city are mainly collected from the garbage cans in the city and recycled from the households through the recycling of waste collection stations in the city and small vendors. Most of the recycling departments are privately owned, small-scaled and simply equipped, and the recycled materials are mainly piled up in the open air and are sold through manual collection and then to the material recovery department at the next higher level. As the environmental sanitation agency of the government's competent department, it collects various unused production and living garbage in the city. It is mainly transported to waste dumping sites. The vast majority are not further treated, and the area of ​​garbage disposal facilities around the city is expanded. There are few logistics companies that use waste logistics as profitable services. Waste not only threatens the city but also spreads to the countryside. Take Minqin County of Gansu Province as an example, a place where the original ecological environment was very weak. In recent years, due to the large amount of mulching land used for arable land, the waste plastic waste formed has begun to seriously affect the yield of crops. The non-degradable plastic in the field Everywhere, this white pollution, and who will bear the consequences? Is this contrary to the "model cities for environmental protection", "eco-city", and "sustainable development concept" advocated by us?

Development status of foreign waste logistics

In recent years, the collection, transportation, recycling, and final disposal of waste have become an important industry in foreign countries. The August 1998 issue of “money world” magazine featured a “disposal of gold in rubbish” discussion. Valuable industries will be companies dealing with waste or technology companies that produce waste disposal systems because they believe that the potential value of this market is more than US$600 billion, based on current waste disposal costs of US$120 per ton. With regard to the above information alone, we can see that developed countries attach importance to waste treatment.

Due to the special nature of waste logistics, countries and regions have established strict laws and regulations for the circulation and disposal of waste. For example, Germany is the first country in the world to pay attention to the recycling and utilization of packaging waste. In 1975, the German government and the industrial sector reached an agreement on resource conservation and increased recycling of packaging waste. In 1986, the German government promulgated the Waste Disposal and Treatment Measures. In 1991, it officially issued the Decree on Packaging Waste to legislate. The method of making products and sellers responsible for the recycling of packaging waste is the "Packaging Waste Disposal Act." In addition, in 1996, Germany also promulgated the "Circular Economy and Waste Management Law" to guarantee the implementation of "green packaging" in legal form. Another example is Japan. In April 2001, the "Basic Law for Promoting the Establishment of a Recycling Society," "The Law for the Effective Utilization of Resources," and "The Law for the Reuse of Household Appliances" were implemented in April 2001 to strive to control the quantity of garbage and realize the reuse of resources; Europe, the United States, Japan, etc. Developed countries have issued decrees requiring product manufacturers and importers to be responsible for the recycling, reuse and remanufacturing of packaging.

Waste treatment methods

As far as solid wastes are concerned, the current treatment methods include seven types of compaction, crushing, sorting, dehydration and drying, solidification, thermal conversion, and biological disposal. With the development of science and technology, waste disposal equipment has been continuously improved, and the modern, scientific and systematic level of waste disposal has also been gradually improved. For example, modern machinery is used for garbage sorting; biological engineering is used for landfill construction; thermal physical heat transfer technology improves waste incineration power generation system to increase electricity production capacity; biotechnology is used for waste fertilizer to improve fertilizer efficiency and quality; modern information technology Used for waste management system and so on. Waste incineration has been widely used abroad. Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and other countries have become the main means of waste treatment. 80% of Swiss waste is incinerated; in Japan, more than 70% of Danish waste is incinerated.

The current “integrated waste management” of international waste disposal is to mobilize the entire public to participate in the 3R operation and reduce the output of garbage. The three R’s action slogans are: 1Reduce waste; 2Use it as best as possible ( Reuse); 3 Recycle. Because economic globalization and social resources tend to be globally mobile, it is necessary for the entire society to do so to reduce the total amount of waste and the city's burden on waste disposal.

Industrialization of waste logistics

Take the American Waste Management Company as an example. Founded in 1894, this company is currently the world's largest waste processing company and the only company that provides a full range of environmental protection services. The scope of services includes environmental consulting, architectural design and engineering management, and business expansion throughout the world. Today's waste disposal companies control: International Waste Treatment Corporation, Chemical Waste Treatment Corporation, Belt Shot Blasting Machine Technology Corporation and Rust International Corporation, becoming the world's largest environmental services company. For another example, in Denmark, only one garbage comprehensive treatment plant is built in a country, and the consumption of garbage accounts for about half of the country's total.

Some Thoughts on Industrialized Operation of Waste Logistics in China

Waste has received extensive attention abroad and has begun industrialization operations. Waste is a kind of resource, but it is different from other kinds of resources: On the one hand, its volume is increasing continuously, and the management mode is also different. China's waste disposal and utilization are still quite backward, and there is still a long way to go for high-tech waste management. How to make our country's waste logistics gradually market-oriented and industrialized, I believe that in addition to formulating relevant laws and regulations, the government can make some attempts, such as pilot operations in some small cities, the government to make appropriate investment and Policy support, so that our logistics companies involved in this industry. As the sanitation department should increase its propaganda and stricter penalties, Prof. Ye Wenhu of Peking University mentioned the “win-win situation for all three students”, namely, the growth of production, improvement of living, and ecological improvement. At the same time, we will achieve a win-win result in the development of the economy and improvement of the environment The collection of waste is firstly a point-to-face collection process. Who will digest the cost burden? How waste manufacturers and waste disposal parties adjust their pattern of interest and enable all parties to participate actively, these can only be solved by mandatory policies, and soft sciences are required to answer this series of questions. In order to reduce the amount of waste discharged from China at the source, a measurement and charging system for production and domestic waste should be implemented gradually. On the other hand, domestic logistics companies can see the profitability of this industry. The author believes that China should learn from some experiences of developed countries in handling waste because waste disposal is also a very complicated process. It needs to collect, store, transport, and eventually incinerate and bury operations from the surface to the point. It needs special Equipment, the initial investment, long recovery period, so it requires a lot of support.

Although China is a big country with great resources, due to the weak awareness of ecological protection, the ecological balance in many parts of China has been severely damaged in recent years.