News Investigation | "Waste free Cities" Enhance Green Culture for the "Waste free Asian Games"

In the morning, the city has just woken up. Sanitation workers have already started taking action. Their actions are as efficient and orderly as assembly lines. Garbage is sorted, concentrated, packaged, and then transported to places far from the city center and people's sight. The sky brightened, and the city was clean, tidy, and refreshed, as if garbage had never been generated before. However, the amount of waste generated by a city every day is calculated in tens of thousands of tons. According to information released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2019, China is one of the countries with the largest solid waste generation in the world. With the process of urbanization, more than 10 billion tons of solid waste are added each year, and the total historical storage volume is as high as 60 billion to 70 billion tons. Due to the low comprehensive processing capacity, issues such as "garbage siege" are becoming increasingly prominent, becoming a pain in people's hearts and a threat to people's livelihoods, and also affecting the sustainable development of the economy and society.

At the largest garbage incineration power plant in Hangzhou, two octopus shaped robotic arms continuously grab garbage from the giant garbage bin 24 hours a day and put it into the incinerator, with a designed daily processing capacity of 5200 tons. If it stops working, this huge garbage bin will soon be filled with a continuous stream of urban garbage. In recent years, China has placed the prevention and control of solid waste pollution in a prominent position in the construction of ecological civilization, and has made strategic arrangements at the national level. On the basis of a series of important measures such as prohibiting the entry of foreign waste and promoting the classification of household waste, pilot projects for the construction of waste free cities have been carried out, aiming to gradually transform development and lifestyle, and continuously promote the modernization of the solid waste governance system and governance capacity.

In such an atmosphere, Hangzhou is also determined to seriously compete with urban solid waste. The 19th Asian Summer Games will open on September 23. Hangzhou, which is creating a "city without waste", has put forward the requirements of "green, intelligent, frugal, and civilized" and integrated the concept of "waste free" into it, attempting to make it a waste free sports event.

Huanglong Sports Center, founded in 1997, was once the largest sports comprehensive venue in Zhejiang Province. The football, gymnastics, water polo and other three major categories and five events of the Asian Games, as well as the athletics competition of the Asian Paralympic Games, will be held here. To meet the competition standards, the Huanglong Sports Center needs to be upgraded and renovated.

Zhu Ziqiang, Technical Director of the Asian Games venue renovation project at a certain company's Zhejiang Huanglong Sports Center, said: "The main focus is on improving the functionality of the event and the surrounding environment.". The interior of our entire stadium, including the lawn behind us, the standard runway, and many gradient colored seats we see now.

Zhu Ziqiang is a construction worker for the Huanglong Sports Center Asian Games venue renovation project. He said that the main stadium is mainly renovated, while the supporting buildings, incubation base, and tourist center outside the stadium are demolished and rebuilt.

Construction waste refers to various types of waste generated during the construction, maintenance, renovation, demolition of buildings, road facilities, etc., including debris, concrete blocks, waste plastics, waste metals, waste bamboo and wood, etc. Every year, construction waste accounts for about 40% of the garbage generated in cities in China. Most of it is directly transported to the suburbs for outdoor stacking or simple landfill without treatment, which not only occupies land resources but may also cause problems such as surface subsidence and ecological damage. From a global perspective, developed countries attach great importance to the resource utilization and reuse of construction waste, and China still has significant room for improvement in this field.

Zhu Ziqiang, Technical Director of the Asian Games venue renovation project at a certain company's Zhejiang Huanglong Sports Center: At the time, we were equipped with two crushers on site. They were repeatedly pounded by the plate hammer inside the machine, and then came out through five different particle sizes: one is from 0 to 5 millimeters, another is from 5 to 10 millimeters, and the other is from 10 to 30 millimeters, 30 to 50 millimeters, and above 50 millimeters. There are a total of five particle sizes with different uses.

In recent years, mobile crushing stations have been widely used in large-scale construction sites such as highways, railways, and hydropower projects. They can crush and sort construction waste, and are considered an effective way to improve the resource utilization of construction waste. Zhu Ziqiang said that they rented a mobile crushing station from a professional company, and about 40% of the 13000 cubic meters of construction waste generated from the renovation project was used for backfilling the cushion layer of the sports center's own roads and buildings after crushing, while the rest was handed over to a crushing equipment professional company for cleaning and offsetting some of the rental and cleaning costs.

The concrete produced by venue demolition can be used for various purposes after crushing, such as using smaller particles of slag for road construction, pile foundation filling, foundation, etc., and larger particles for cement admixtures or preparing paving bricks, etc. In recent years, China has introduced multiple preferential policies to encourage and support the recycling of construction waste resources. And this is also an important measure for Hangzhou to build a waste free city and carry out the waste free Asian Games.

Ma Liyang, Minister of the Environmental Protection Department of the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and Director of the Hangzhou Ecological Environment Bureau: The concept of no waste is advocated by the United Nations, and March 30th of this year is the first Global No Waste Day. As a large-scale international competition, the Asian Games will generate a large amount of construction waste, household waste, and so on. If the concept of no waste can be integrated into the construction process of the Asian Games, it can better practice the green Asian Games.

The term "zero waste" originates from the English word "Zero Waste", meaning "zero waste, zero waste". In the 1970s, the United States was the first chemical recycling and reuse enterprise named after it. In 1996, Canberra, the capital of Australia, passed the Waste Free Act of 2010, becoming the world's first city to establish a waste free goal. Since then, developed countries have been the main focus, and cities have continuously proposed the goal of building waste free cities.

Since 2019, China has introduced multiple policies related to the construction of waste free cities, and has designated 11 cities in Guangdong, Shenzhen, Baotou in Inner Mongolia, Shaoxing in Zhejiang, and 5 special areas in Xiong'an New Area as pilot cities for creating waste free cities. In 2021, the number of pilot cities and regions has been increased to over 100, including Hangzhou. Since the preparation for the Asian Games, the concept of no waste has been implemented in all aspects.

Ma Liyang, Minister of the Environmental Protection Department of the 19th Hangzhou Organizing Committee for the Asian Games, Director of the Hangzhou Ecological Environment Bureau: We have specially formulated the "Implementation Plan for the Asian Games without Waste", "Action Guidelines for the Asian Games without Waste", and standards for the creation of waste free cells. Because we had no prior experience with specialized large-scale competitions without waste, this time we are actually a brand new exploration and attempt. The second is that we can achieve zero waste throughout the entire process, from the construction and preparation of the venue before the competition, to the recycling, disposal, and harmless treatment of household waste during the operation of the event during the competition, to better use of the venue after the competition, and so on. The entire process is integrated with the zero waste concept.

Fenkou Middle School, with a history of over 80 years, is located on the westernmost side of Qiandao Lake, more than 100 kilometers away from the downtown area of Hangzhou. Due to the implementation of the "no waste" concept, this township high school has developed a wonderful connection with the Asian Games.

Xu Binghe and Zhang Yaofeng are both teachers at Fenkou Middle School. They said that the gymnasium has been built with cement floors since 2008, and it wasn't until the summer of 2020 that the county education bureau suddenly notified them to lay wooden floors.

Xu Binghe, Vice Principal of Fenkou Middle School in Chun'an County, Hangzhou: There has been a big change because as soon as the floor is raised, the entire gymnasium feels bright and comfortable to exercise. Teachers play basketball, students play basketball, and even have physical education classes on rainy days, so people like to come in. The changes are still significant, and relatively speaking, there have been fewer sports injuries.

Xu Bing and Zhang Yaofeng said that from materials to construction, the school and Chun'an County did not spend a penny. These high-quality wooden floors come from the cultural and sports center of Zhejiang University of Commerce and Industry.

Zhao Yingjun, Vice President of Zhejiang University of Business and Technology: The Cultural and Sports Center was built in 2015 and put into use in 2016. Mainly for these large-scale cultural and sports activities in the school, and we have also undertaken an important event, the badminton competition of the 2017 National University Games.

Zhao Yingjun said that the school originally intended to use the flooring for a long time, but this time the Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou, and the school does not want to miss this rare opportunity.

Zhao Yingjun, Vice President of Zhejiang University of Business and Technology: At that time, I was wondering if I could use the original floor. It has been more than five years, and this floor is still very new. Even if I remove it, I feel regretful. The result is that it is not possible and must be replaced. According to the requirements of handball games, it is a professional sports floor with a suspended design. This is a professional flooring and professional flooring adhesive ordered according to the requirements of the Asian Organizing Committee and the Asian Handball Federation.

Zhao Yingjun, Vice President of Zhejiang University of Business and Technology: All of them need to be dismantled, so I think about recycling. When I think about the issue of secondary utilization, I feel regretful.

The construction company responsible for upgrading and renovating the cultural and sports center also had the same idea after seeing the floor.

Zhang Wu, Project Secretary of the Asian Games Handball Hall at Zhejiang Gongshang University, a certain construction group limited company: We also communicated with their school at that time, and we had this intention. We felt it was a pity to throw it away. This is relatively new, and it has been more than four years. It would be best to donate to mountainous areas, including schools in need, to be able to lay it up.

Zhang Wu said that they were responsible for repairing the dismantled wooden floors one by one, and then transporting and reinstalling them to the sports hall of Fenkou Middle School. The additional costs incurred from this will be jointly borne by the contracting parties of the project. In fact, the concepts of waste free and thrift are not exactly the same. The core essence of waste free is to "through responsible production, consumption, and recycling, make waste as reusable as possible, reduce or even eliminate waste incineration, landfilling, and disposal to open-air landfills and oceans, so as not to threaten the environment and human health." Sometimes, more manpower, time, and management costs may need to be invested. This means that people no longer measure the value of goods solely based on economics.

This is the gymnasium of Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology, which was completed and put into use in 2006. The Asian Games fencing competition will be held here. But the sports hall, which has been in use for nearly 20 years, also needs to be upgraded, with a total budget of about 140 million yuan, of which 80% is allocated by the government and 20% is self raised by universities.

Lin Hao, Director of the Public Affairs Management Office of Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology: We are also eager to improve this venue. The concept of this Asian Games is to hold the Asian Games frugally, green, intelligent, and civilized, which is highly in line with the educational goals of our university. At the time of the renovation design, our school actually required that what could be used should be used as much as possible, but the benefits generated were significant. One was tangible, what we could see was more intangible. Being able to make this concept accepted by every student, the benefits generated were enormous.

Lin Hao said that based on the principle of using up the seats, the school has decided not to repurchase the seats for the audience seats, but to renovate them. A cleaning company has taken on this task.

If calculated roughly based on the weight of 1000 grams per seat, using refurbishment instead of replacement can reduce about 4.6 tons of plastic waste. The venue construction for this Asian Games will adhere to the principle of not building new venues if they can be renovated. Among the 56 competition venues, 12 will be newly built, and 44 will be renovated or temporarily built.

In addition, the Hangzhou Ecology and Environment Bureau has formulated 14 waste free measures in the "Action Plan for the Asian Games without Waste", and in the "Guidelines for the Construction of Waste Free Asian Games Cells", it distinguishes basic units such as Asian Games venues, reception hotels, and sponsoring enterprises, and sets "waste free" indicators. Including 23 items such as per capita waste production and household waste recycling rate, and managing the waste generated during the Asian Games through dynamic data such as online monitoring.

At the beginning of September, the preparations for the Asian Games Village were basically ready. In the near future, more than 12000 Chinese and foreign athletes, team officials, more than 4000 technical officials, and more than 5000 media reporters will stay and rest here. How to dispose of the large increase in household waste at that time is also an important challenge that the waste free Asian Games will face.

Ruan Jinrong, Environmental Protection Director of the Municipal Security Center of the Asian Games Village Operation Team: Hangzhou Asian Games Village is divided into three villages and four plots, namely Technical Officials Village, Media Village, and Athletes Village, and one is the International Zone.

Ruan Jinrong is the environmental protection supervisor of the Asian Games Village. He said that the village is like a huge hotel, with about 20000 people living in the village.

This is an athlete's restaurant with over 4200 seats, and it is also the place with the highest number of diners in the village every day.

Ruan Jinrong, Environmental Protection Director of the Municipal Security Center of the Asian Games Village Operation Team: In order to reduce the production of perishable waste in the athlete's restaurant, firstly, at the source, when the ingredients come in, they are clean vegetables, mostly semi-finished products. This means that some unnecessary food packaging or skins have been reduced at the source. The second one is the buffet format we provide for athletes to eat, which means taking as much as they want to eat can reduce food waste.

Ruan Jinrong said that the food in restaurants must be fresh and its expiration date must be strictly controlled to avoid food safety hazards. Therefore, on-demand cooking has become an important means of reducing waste.

In the athlete's room, the clothes rack and water cup are all environmentally friendly products made of straw. Smart garbage collection devices are also installed in the public areas of the village, encouraging participants to sort their garbage.

Ruan Jinrong, Environmental Protection Director of the Municipal Security Center of the Asian Games Village Operation Team: After all athletes and technical officials move into the Asian Games Village, they will have an account in the cloud based Asian Games Village. They can classify their household waste and put it in the corresponding garbage bin. The system will automatically judge the weight, and finally provide a QR code. Athletes, staff, and officials can earn low-carbon points by simply scanning the QR code with their phones. In addition to garbage delivery, for example, we can get some low-carbon points for green walking or Clean Your Plate Campaign. You can redeem corresponding souvenirs with low-carbon points.

According to data released by Hangzhou City, the total amount of solid waste in the city exceeded 11.05 million tons in 2022, including 4.64 million tons of household waste. In order to effectively dispose of this waste, in addition to promoting source reduction and garbage classification, Hangzhou has also invested in and built multiple disposal projects. In 2022, the urban household waste recycling and utilization rate in the city reached 39.39%. The household waste generated by the Asian Games will also be disposed of in a harmless and resourceful manner based on this system.

Wang Runpei from a certain bioenergy limited company: Our company is responsible for the content of the Asian Games. Our summary is that one village has three pavilions, and one village represents the Asian Games village. The collection and transportation of perishable waste in the entire Asian Games village. The three pavilions are three types of venues, one is a competition venue, one is a training venue, and the third pavilions are our corresponding affordable hotels. According to our current statistics, there are a total of 23 locations for the collection and transportation of perishable waste in our village and three museums.

This is a low value waste resource utilization enterprise located in Fuyang District, Hangzhou. Their raw materials are waste milk boxes, meal boxes, etc. They took on the disposal of low value food packaging generated by venues such as the Asian Games Village this time.

Yang Sunfei from a certain ecological technology limited company: Waste milk box. But in reality, it is composed of three materials and six layers of composite.

According to Yang Sunfei, they will soon start accepting the paper waste lunch boxes generated by venues such as the Asian Games Village. After a few hours of processing, the waste lunch boxes will become useful recycled paper, greatly reducing the amount of waste transported to waste incineration plants for disposal.

West Lake is a signature scenic spot in Hangzhou and is now striving to become a waste free scenic spot. In order to maintain the water quality here, the management department has taken various measures, including regularly planting underwater forests and salvaging dead aquatic plants floating on the lake surface every day.

Liang Peng from the Urban Management Bureau of West Lake Scenic Area: This water plant was just salvaged from West Lake today, especially during this season when there is a large amount of water plant. After salvaging this type of water plant, it is directly transported to our processing equipment. Currently, we have a total of two processing facilities. By crushing, drying, and removing water from aquatic plants, a fertilizer was ultimately produced. The daily processing capacity of two tons of water grass produces approximately 140 to 160 kilograms of fertilizer.

It is understood that the West Lake Scenic Area can process over 1400 tons of garden waste such as water grass and fallen leaves every year, producing over 200 tons of organic fertilizer, all of which are used for fertilization of flowers, plants, and trees in the scenic area. This approach imitates the inherent cycle patterns of nature.

And waste free cities also follow this principle, attempting to generate as little waste as possible from the source, while recycling and reusing as much as possible in the subsequent disposal process, ultimately reducing the total amount of landfill and incineration waste. In recent years, the garbage classification advocated by various cities aims to mobilize every garbage producer to take responsibility and select as many recyclable and reusable items as possible from their discarded items.

Shi Feifei, Urban Management Office of Yingfeng Street, Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou: Our community has been working on garbage classification since 2018. Our Xiaoshan District has models of 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. 1.0 mainly starts with precise classification of perishable waste, where residents separate perishable waste separately. 2.0 We refer to it as a timed and fixed-point mode, for example, for the eight buildings in this community, we selected two locations and had dedicated guides to guide residents to sort and dispose of them, including our garbage bins which became four. Now we call it the Six Full One Code 3.0 version, which introduces a recyclable item and a valuable recycling item. At this stage, I also have a reward mechanism.

This smart system also provides a QR code for each household to earn points, which is equivalent to one yuan per 100 points. The points can be exchanged for daily necessities at supermarkets near the community.

From the gradual upgrading of garbage classification in this community, it can be found that government departments have gradually changed the behavior of residents by increasing the variety, timing, and location of garbage classification, and integrating the concept that "garbage is an item that cannot be discarded casually" into daily life.

The cultivation of public awareness is the most fundamental but important part of waste management. Whether it is positive incentives or negative punishments, they aim to help people change their previous indifferent attitude towards waste and rebuild a closer relationship with waste. They are not just the responsibility of sanitation workers, they are closely related to everyone.

Need firm ideals and beliefs, micro videos | passionate youth spirit | thoughts | youth

The fiery youth requires firm ideals and beliefs——The CPC