Reference and enlightenment of German municipal solid waste treatment
With the acceleration of urbanization in China, the phenomenon of "garbage besieged city" is becoming more and more serious. About a quarter of cities in China have no landfill sites, and the accumulated land occupied by urban garbage dumps in China exceeds 500 million square meters, resulting in an annual economic loss of up to 30 billion yuan. Although burning garbage partially solves the problems of land occupation and groundwater pollution, it is not conducive to solving the atmospheric problem of frequent smog in China. China urgently needs to improve urban garbage disposal and actively deal with climate change and energy shortage. Germany is recognized as one of the countries with the earliest development of circular economy and the most experience in garbage disposal in the world. Learning from its relevant experience will help to improve the problems existing in garbage disposal in China.
Legal basis and management organization of garbage disposal in Germany
There are many laws and regulations on garbage management in Germany, involving various aspects and specific technical details. The Waste Disposal Law was first promulgated in 1972, while the Law on Circular Economy and Garbage Management in 1996 has a wide influence in the world, and it also started the circular economy in Germany. It is a programmatic regulation for developing circular economy and garbage disposal in Germany. The law defines some principles in garbage disposal, such as the polluter pays principle; Garbage is also a kind of resource, which can only be discarded when it can not be recycled under the conditions of existing technology. The scope of garbage disposal includes waste oil, packaging waste, batteries, scrapped cars and electronic waste. This regulation is supplemented by several more detailed regulations, such as Biological Waste Regulation, Landfill Regulation and Sludge Disposal Regulation.
Another significant thing is the "Regulations on Packaging Waste" implemented in 1991, which stipulates that the general "polluter pays" principle in environmental economics is extended to the field of production and consumption, that is, the producers and sellers of commodities are responsible for the recycling of their product packaging. This principle not only solves the problem of recycling and disposal of consumer waste, but more importantly, it encourages manufacturers to reduce waste at the source, such as improving technology to save the amount of raw materials, using recycled materials or simplifying product packaging. Today, this principle has been extended to many countries in Europe. In addition to the above-mentioned important laws and regulations, Germany has also promulgated wheelie bins Regulations, Scrap Cars Regulations, E-waste Regulations, Battery Regulations, etc., which are detailed to different types of waste and specific technical levels.
The highest management institution of German garbage disposal is the German Ministry of Environmental Protection and the professional agency Federal Environmental Protection Agency, which is mainly responsible for promulgating laws and state cooperation. The state environmental departments or regional organs and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce are senior management organs, mainly responsible for the implementation of relevant laws and regulations; There are also county and city management organs, which belong to lower management organs and are responsible for the whole process of garbage collection, transportation and disposal.
Organization and operation of garbage disposal in Germany
Based on the principle of extended production responsibility system, producers are responsible for the garbage they produce in the whole life cycle, but for many smaller producers and sellers, it is a big burden to establish their own recycling system. In view of this, in 1990, with the support of the German Federation of Industries and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 95 companies in the retail, consumer goods and packaging industries spontaneously established the Green Point Company. The company is a private joint-stock enterprise, and it is non-profit. Green Point Company mainly aims at packaging garbage. By establishing a binary recycling system, on the one hand, manufacturers and sellers will be responsible for packaging recycling of their products, and on the other hand, their costs will be reduced. In this system, manufacturers and sellers pay Green Point Company to collect packaging garbage on their behalf, and Green Point Company then entrusts garbage recycling and utilization company to carry out follow-up work. The rate charged by Green Point Company to the manufacturer is often related to the environmental protection degree of the product packaging. The lower the environmental protection degree of the packaging, the higher the rate. Thus, Green Point Company has played a coordinating and organizing role in the whole system. Once the manufacturer entrusts the Green Point Company to engage in the garbage collection function on its behalf, they can attach the logo of the Green Point Company, that is, an arc-shaped green arrow, to the packaging of their products. Today, more than 90% of the products in Germany have the logo of Green Dot Company, and the model of Green Dot Company has been gradually extended to other European countries.
Classification and recovery of garbage disposal in Germany
The classification and recycling of garbage in Germany is very careful, so it is especially beneficial to the recycling and treatment of garbage. Generally speaking, all garbage can be divided into waste paper, light packaging, glass, clothes and shoes, biological garbage and residual garbage. The garbage put into the waste paper bucket (blue bucket) mainly includes newspapers, magazines, cardboard, toilet paper, etc. Leftover meals, peels, egg shells, fallen leaves, etc. are put into the biological trash can (brown bucket); Residual trash can (black bucket) is used to place other garbage that is not clearly classified, such as stockings, light bulbs, garbage cleaning, ballpoint pens, band-AIDS, broken toys, diapers, cigarette butts, etc. Plastic, aluminum, beverage cans, tin sheets, beverage boxes, yogurt cups, etc. are put into light packaging barrels (yellow barrels). In some cities, households put the packaging garbage into yellow garbage bags, and garbage trucks will take it away at a fixed time. The design of garbage trucks in Germany is also very user-friendly. Cleaning workers can automatically dump large boxes of garbage into the garbage trucks just by docking the garbage cans with the garbage trucks, saving manpower and time for garbage collection. For glass bottles, people need to throw them directly into special waste glass recycling bins on the street. Usually, such devices can be found near various communities, and glass bottles can be put into recycling bins according to three colors: white (transparent), green and brown. Similar to waste glass garbage, old clothes and shoes also have special collection points, but clothes need to be cleaned and wrapped before they are put into the garbage bin. After more than ten years of development, Germans have become accustomed to garbage sorting.
Enlightenment of German Experience to China
Comprehensively improve the laws and regulations on garbage management. Governments at all levels should formulate feasible laws and regulations, and strictly supervise them, especially the details of implementation, such as the requirements for garbage classification and recycling and how to classify them.
Actively adopt economic means to solve the problem of garbage sorting and recycling. Although China has carried out the pilot work of garbage sorting and recycling in many cities for a long time, the results are often a mere formality. The recyclable and non-recyclable garbage bins all over the streets do not play a classification role, and people do not make any distinction when throwing away garbage. In this regard, we can adopt the garbage charging system and the deposit refund system. Data and research in developed countries have shown that these economic means have remarkable effects on waste reduction and classified recycling. In Germany, the charge for residual garbage is often higher than other types of garbage, which encourages people to classify garbage more carefully.
Vigorously publicize the knowledge of garbage classification and promote the cultivation of people’s awareness of saving. Garbage classification is a meticulous and tedious work, which requires regular publicity and education activities with rich contents and various forms. On the other hand, guide the public to pursue a minimalist lifestyle and carry forward the fine tradition of thrift.
(Yang Ling, author: Xi ‘an Jiaotong University)