Generation of Hazardous Waste
A mechanism that makes collection, transportation, and disposal of waste garbage, sewage, and other waste products is the process that is defined as waste management (Blackman, 2016). This mechanism is a broad concept that encompasses management of all processes and other resources. The below presented analysis is demonstrated on the concept of Hazardous waste management in Shanghai China.
Generation of hazardous waste
China has the largest economy in the world but that comes with a downside which is increased industrialization. Over the last few decades, industrialization in china has increased and that has aided in hazardous waste in the country. The waste is generated in metric million tones. Rapid and tremendous industrial prosperity has accelerated the waste production which is hazardous to the population as well as the environment (Greenberg, 2017). Hazardous waste consist of medical waste, industrial waste or any other waste produced in daily life. All type of wastes that are produced in china and their physical characteristics are discussed below.
Industrial wastes- According to a report, the amount of waste generated in 2005 in china was around11.62 million tones in which 1.1% of industrial solid waste was accounted for and Shanghai also plays a huge part in this waste creation. Among the industrial hazardous waste, alkali and acid are the mostly produced pollutant, which is around 31% to 40% (Reuters 2018). Due to industry, the raw materials, which are chemically treated or raw chemical products, are discharged off directly without any kind of treatment. South west area of china generates the maximum amount of hazardous waste due to industries. Recently around 40 million tons of waste was produced. Mostly manufacturing industry have generated hazardous waste which is unprecedented in amount. Illegal dumping of industrial waste has caused so many issues like, water contamination, deforestation and many more (Li, Wang, Lin, Liu & Chi, 2015). Chemical produced by these industries are the main cause of pollution that contains lots of alkali metal and acids.
Medical waste – medical waste is the most hazardous waste of its kind. It causes lot of harm to the people as well as the environment. In china each year around 650,000 tons of medical waste is produced. Medical waste can be any potential waste that is generated from any kind of medical facility like hospitals, laboratories, or any kind of health centers. Medical waste has been categorized into some categories like,
- Infectious waste
- Pathological waste
- Medicine waste
- Sharp waste
- Chemical waste
Existing Hazardous Waste Management System in Shanghai
Any medical facility, blood bank, dental hospitals, biomedical stores can generate these waste, biomedical research centers are the main area to generate such waste (Gottinger, 2018). Blood soaked bandages or cotton, petri dishes from labs, discarded and used needles etcetera are the main components of the medical wastes.
Domestic wastes- Domestic wastes are not much hazardous but when produced in alarge amount, they do affect the environment and health conditions of the population. Daily waste can be sewage waste, garbage, food, papers, poly bags and many more. The household waste are produced in large quantities in china because of the largest population in the world. Due to this a large amount of money is required to handle and manage the waste produced by such large population. All these wastes are hazardous for the environment and as well as people.
China produces the waste in a very large amount of hazardous waste every year. Approximate amount of hazardous waste each year is around 254 million tones, which is one third of world’s garbage produced every year? It is because industrialization and urbanization in china has increased significantly. Earlier the garbage was transported through the tractors in china . they used to commute beyond the sub- urban area and dump the waste into the pits . but currently the situation is completely different in the china (Rhyner, Schwartz, Wenger & Kohrell, 2017). Waste management is done by:
Incinerators- According to the Chinese government, 30 % of the waste is required to be incinerated. Most of the waste generated in china consists of papers, polystyrene packaging, plastic and rubber which is very easily burned in the incinerators. Other kind of soggy trash like, vegetables or food is very hard to be burned in the incinerator. Usually the incinerators are not produced in china therefore; they are imported from other countries like Germany and Europe. In china due to heavy waste, the incinerators are allowed to produce the dioxin, which is 10 times greater than the American incinerators (Li, Wang, Lin, Liu & Chi, 2015). Incinerators are very helpful in managing the medical waste. Since the medical waste is very infectious that is why incinerator is the most efficient way to destroy them. because of the high temperature, most of the pathogens dies and there are very less chances of any bio hazard.
Rural landfills- Usually the waste is dumped in the rural villages of china which creates a very unhygienic condition for the rural villages which are present on the outskirts of the large urban cities. Villagers are constrainedly had to live near the dumping area. To help the people, government is paying them $15 per month to those who live within the 100 meters of the dumping area. Government of china did not even consult the people before taking this major decision and now they are forced to live there (Gu et al., 2015). This shows the poor management of the waste in china. Environment ministry is also not taking any kind of steps towards this issue; it really has caused so many difficulties to the rural people. Due to the waste dumping, so many problem as raised in the area. Due to this poor management of waste, people are suffering miserably in such environment (Tang, 2016).
Prediction of Future Waste Quantities
Recycling- Some kind of refuse like, rubber, paper, plastic, tin, aluminum and other things are collected by some collector who are also known as “rag and bone man”. These collectors go from door to door, houses to house, in order to collect the waste products. In this way people get rid of the waste material and get some money in exchange for it. This is the way that has helped the government in two ways, on is more people are getting job and another is getting rid of the waste materials. According to estimation, there are around 160,000-rag collector in Beijing only. Most of the waste products are used by recycling them. most of the industries buy some significant waste products (Cao et al., 2016). Government has no such special laws and policies regarding the waste disposal that is why these collectors really help in getting rid of the waste products in many ways possible. Another thing is that, the most of the industries buy some specific kind of waste in order to use them as the raw material and pay the collectors some money in return.
Scavengers- Many people in Shanghai China work as scavenger and collect the waste from different area. They collect plastic bags, papers, shoes, tins, aluminum, polythene bags etcetera. This way they are able to earn money. Most of the population of Shanghai earns money this way. Around 170,000 workers are there in Beijing alone who work as scavengers. These scavengers really contribute in collecting a large amount of waste.
There are some other ways in Shanghai to control the waste disposal like, recycling machines and disposable items for daily use (Bian, Bai, Li, Yin & Xu, 2016). But the waste management system of china is really not at all feasible and efficient. Due to poor management of waste, population of china faces a great danger regarding health and environment
Looking at the rapid growth of industrialization it can be easily determined that the future production of waste is going to increase. In the past decade, the waste production has increased tremendously and since there are no effective laws regarding the waste management in china therefore it can be a greater issue in the upcoming years or so (Srivastava, Ismail, Singh & Singh, 2015). China also deals with the waste products and can also be called as the biggest importer of the waste products therefore the situation is getting worse and require some serious laws regarding the waste management. Although due to increased amount of waste and garbage, the Chinese government is really getting concerned about the situation. Therefore some policies like “waste ban” have been launched. In the upcoming years or so, the government will be able to take the responsibility and grow concern towards the situation (Fei, Qu, Wen, Xue & Zhang, 2016). Since million tons of garbage is produced, every year, which is one third of the whole world’s garbage, produces in a year. Another important step regarding this situation has been taken by the Chinese government, which states that china no longer will accept the waste imports. Since so many hazardous contaminants are discovered in china therefore, china will repress the recycled waste inflow and imports (Liu, Chen, Li, Yu & Yan, 2014). Another way to make the use of waste is by using it for energy production. All these steps can really help china to reduce hazardous waste.
Talking about the pollution, due to the large amount of waste produced in china due to industrialization many issues have raised like, deforestation, acid rains, air pollution, water pollution, and soil pollution. Even global warming has increased along with the high level of deforestation. Biodiversity loss is another issue, which has risen because of increasing rate of pollution (Zaman, 2015). Chemicals from the industry causes soil and water pollution, which eventually result in biodiversity loss and polluted water. Large population of china suffers from lack of resources like food and water because of this situation. Another issues like contamination and bio hazard occurs because of hazardous waste (Song, Li & Zeng, 2015). A large part of Chinese population suffers from different kind of diseases that are caused by pathogens obtained from the waste or the site where the waste is dumped without any treatment. Rivers like, Pearl River and Yangtze River have suffered from the pollution because of many industries dumping their waste into these rivers illegally. All these issues affect the Chinese population in one way or other but mostly the health gets affected because of it (Rhyner, Schwartz, Wenger & Kohrell, 2017). Also the loss of biodiversity and environment damages causes a huge loss to the country.
Conclusion
China is 2nd largest economy in the world and Shanghai is one of the developed region of the economy. Due to large population, Shanghai suffers from a huge amount of hazardous waste every year. The waste is around 260 metric tons. Because of the huge amount of waste production, the country suffers a lot. To manage the waste disposal, china has introduced several ways like, incinerators, recycling, several laws, and policies and many more. This has helped the China to manage the waste but it is a big concern for the country and it requires a major attention towards the problem. Lack of waste management has caused many issues like poor health, environment damages etcetera. If not handled properly then this is very likely to cause many difficulties for people of china in many different ways possible. That is why the situation should be handled with proper waste management’s operations.
References
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