Garbage Classification in Zhengzhou — Finding the Most Suitable Way Based on Different Communities
In recent years, the garbage classification issue has become increasingly urgent in China. The increase in population results in a sharp increase in the household waste produced. However, the current landfill and incineration capacity cannot keep up with the increase in waste. Specifically, Zhengzhou, one of the second-tier or new first-tier cities, produces more than 8000 tons of household waste per day with only 4000 tons plus 1000 tons of incineration capacity in the two incineration plants. Fushen Wang, the head of the Zhengzhou Garbage Classification Office, said during an interview that “since the speed of incineration plant construction can not keep up with the waste increment, we are in urgent need of waste classification to reduce, recycle, and safely dispose of waste.” Therefore, in recent years, Zhengzhou is trying to find effective ways to implement garbage classification.
Starting from December 1st, 2019, Zhengzhou has managed to enforce garbage classification and started some pilot projects in several communities. These projects were initially largely based on the city government’s purchase of garbage classification service from companies. Up to June 2019, Zhengzhou has purchased such service from 21 different companies. Take Henan Haokang Environmental Technology Company as an example. It provided every household a food waste bin and keep record of their disposal of the food waste. Shi, an employee from the company, said that “Credits are earned every time they correctly classify the food waste, and more credit can be earned by continuous classification. Residents can exchange credits for daily necessities and the opportunity for a raffle.” Many companies in Zhengzhou used similar strategies to encourage garbage classification
Although the strategies of the companies were proven to be effective in promoting garbage classification within the community, the city government still wanted the property management companies to take over the responsibility. Therefore, when the contract expired at the end of 2020, waste classification companies stopped their service to the local community. However, it seemed that some property management failed to take over the responsibility as the government expected. Some residents stopped doing garbage classification after the garbage classification companies stopped supervising, making the progress back to what it was like before 2019. From these pilot projects, we can see that the local government is still attempting and trying to find the best way to sustainably implement garbage classification.
In the thesis by Wei Wei from Zhengzhou University, she analyzes the reason behind the necessity of government purchase of garbage classification service. She states that “in order to complete the task and improve their political achievement, some local government often blindly and repeatedly invest on facilities construction regardless of the cost in a short period of time, wasting a lot of labor and capital resource,” and that “as time pass and the heat of the policy fade, these investments do not have follow-up and failed to proceed.” Therefore, she believes that government needs to cooperate with the market and non-government organizations, including the purchase of garbage classification services from companies.
However, it does not mean that such government purchase is successful in all aspects. Wei Wei also points out that although investment is high, the government has not provided enough supervision, resulting in a low utilization rate of equipment. Moreover, although the garbage classification service includes promoting related knowledge and consciousness to residents, the proportion of residents who participate in garbage classification is remarkably lower than the proportion of residents who know how to classify their garbage. Most importantly, she points out the low profit gained by these garbage classification companies, which resulted in the lack of initiative during their work.
Indeed, in an article from Henan Business Daily, the reporter Wen Cui interviewed several employees from the garbage classification service companies and reach a conclusion that most of these companies are making little profit or even experiencing loss. Mr. Zhou, the person in charge of the Henan Haokang Environmental Technology Company, said during the interview that “As long as we are not experiencing a loss, making profit is difficult.” He also states that “ If we only take the cost of labor into account, the company is making a little profit, but once the cost of purchasing garbage classification equipment in the early stage is counted, it is hard to make profit.”
Ms. Ma from Zhengzhou Aolande Environmental Technology Company points out similar problems happened to her company that “the contract says that they can sell the equipment they bought at a depreciated price to the following company or to the government, but there is no follow-up now.”This means that the equipments were neither efficiently used by the original company or sold to others after the contract expired. Therefore, relying solely on government subsidies cannot help these firms to make profit and continue operating in the long run.
The low profit is also important when the government made the decision of stop purchasing the service. In the same article, Benbao Huo from the Hanghai West Road Office said that if the government stops subsidizing garbage classification, they will not be able to get garbage classification service. Therefore, they would rather make the community property management companies take over these responsibilities from now. Zhanshi Zheng from the Zhengzhou Garbage Classification Office believes that the property management companies are the ones who have close contact with residents, so it would be more effective for them to communicate with residents regarding the garbage classification problem.
However, I believe that such effectiveness can be undermined by the poor service of property management companies. According to the data from the Zhengzhou Housing Authority in 2014, 80% of the property management companies in Zhengzhou do not have enough qualifications. Most of them are constituted of several security guards and cleaners and are lack management employees. As a resident in Zhengzhou, I can feel how poor the service can be. When my community has power problems, the staff from the property management companies do not answer phone calls from owners and take a long time to solve the problem. Some property owners refuse to pay property fees for the poor service they provide. However, the low property fee has only made their service poorer. This situation is common in many communities in Zhengzhou. How should we expect them to regulate garbage classification when they could not even undertake the basic duty as a property management company. Therefore, the government should decide whether to buy the garbage classification service and what kind of service should they buy based on different types of communities.
In order to make the garbage classification service sustainable in the long run, the government and companies should find ways to make profit out of recycling. In the article by Chao Zheng from Henan Business Daily, he interviewed Guofeng Guan, a member of Zhengzhou Political Consultative Conference, on the problem of waste recycling in Zhengzhou. Guofeng Guan says that household waste is transported to other cities for recycling, which adds to the cost of garbage recycling and misses a good opportunity for Zhengzhou to use these recycled resources. Therefore, I think it would be more effective to construct more recycling facilities and subsidizing these companies on developing related technologies. Endowing them the ability to make profit out of recycling and giving them the initiative of improving can be beneficial in the long run.
In conclusion, Zhengzhou now is still in an attempting stage of finding the best way to implement garbage classification. From these attempts, I believe that Zhengzhou should apply different strategies in different types of communities, regarding both the government purchase of garbage classification service and the ability of property management companies. At the same time, exploring ways to make garbage classification services profitable and constructing recycling facilities within Zhengzhou is also crucial for persistence in the long run.
