First in the Country! "Regulations on the Construction of non-waste Cities in Shanghai" passed!

It is reported that on March 27, 2024, the 12th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 16th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress voted to pass the Regulations on the Construction of Non-waste Cities in Shanghai (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which will come into force on June 5, 2024.

The Regulations make the following provisions:

Shanghai will strengthen the circular development of industrial parks and promote the circular transformation of industrial parks. Optimize the industrial spatial layout in the park, complement and extend the industrial chain, integrate and upgrade related facilities, resources and energy, and establish a material and energy recycling system. Maximize the use of resources and energy and minimize the production of solid waste. The administrative organs of industrial parks shall comply with the requirements of the State and this municipality for the circular transformation of industrial parks. In combination with the industrial foundation, resources and environment of the park, formulate the recycling transformation plan of the park, determine the recycling transformation objectives, transformation projects, promotion steps and safeguard measures, and organize the implementation.

Shanghai will establish and improve a full-category, full-chain, traceable solid waste classification and recycling system, optimize the layout of solid waste recycling sites and facilities, and achieve full coverage of urban and rural recycling services. Explore and promote the integration of recycling systems for renewable resources, domestic waste recyclables and industrial solid waste, and build a unified recycling system.

Shanghai will promote the resource utilization of wet waste through biological treatment methods such as anaerobic digestion and aerobic composting. The city expands the application channels of wet waste resource utilization products; Support the application of standard wet waste resource utilization products in forestry, agriculture and other fields.

On the basis of zero landfill of raw domestic waste, we will promote near-zero landfill of solid waste. The city supports the research and application of solid waste incineration slag and fly ash resource utilization technology to continuously reduce the amount of landfill.

In accordance with the principle of producer pay, Shanghai has established and improved a solid waste disposal charging mechanism that is conducive to the economical and intensive use of resources, the reduction of solid waste at source and the recycling of solid waste, so as to exert its incentive and constraint role in promoting the construction of a waste-free city.

E20 Research Institute Solid Waste Research Center industry analyst Wang Meiling analysis, following the introduction of the country's first "Regulations on the Management of domestic waste" in 2019, Shanghai once again led the country, on March 27, the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress reviewed and passed the "Regulations on the Construction of Shanghai Waste Free City". The introduction of the "Regulations" marks that Shanghai, as the vanguard of the national urban construction, has taken an important step in the construction of the rule of law of the "waste free city", and is expected to continue to improve its solid waste management level by playing a combination of "system, technology, market and supervision".

At present, the final version of the regulations has not yet been published, but from the content of the "Construction Regulations (Draft)" published recently, the construction regulations focus on recycling and emphasize the source reduction. In terms of recycling, the "Regulations" focus on reinforcing weaknesses, strong and weak items, and improving efficiency, emphasizing key breakthroughs in the fields of low-value recyclables and the utilization of construction waste resources. For a long time, hampered by the factors of poor recycling system and low recycling value, the above-mentioned fields have made slow progress in marketization and industrialization, which has become the blocking point and difficulty in the construction of waste free cities. Since 2024, circular economy-related policies such as the Opinions of The General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a waste recycling System and the Action Plan for Promoting large-scale equipment Renewal and replacing old consumer goods with new ones have been frequently issued, emphasizing that through institutional and mechanism innovation, market players can be activated to participate and the level of resource recycling in the whole field can be improved. In line with the national policy direction, the Regulations propose to improve the recycling support policy of low-value recyclables in terms of low-value recyclables, increase the recycling of low-value recyclables, and achieve full collection of recyclables; In terms of the recycling of construction waste, it is proposed to promote the full collection of decoration waste, demolition waste and construction waste concrete, and enter the recycling facilities for utilization. At the same time, in terms of source reduction, the Regulations have made comprehensive provisions for higher standards in the fields of production, consumption and circulation, and comprehensively encourage enterprises and institutions to prioritize the procurement and use of solid waste recycling low-carbon products in green procurement, which will form an effective link with the above recycling links, and drive the upstream and downstream industry chain to jointly help the source reduction while unblocking the consumption channels of recycled products.

From the practical level, the construction of business model is still the focus of attention. For solid waste with low relative value such as low-value recyclables, large-scale is the key, so corresponding requirements are put forward for the construction of front-end collection and transportation channels. In addition, the classification precision of low-value recyclables is a key factor affecting its resource level, there are about two ways to crack: one is to make an effort in garbage classification, and the other is to improve the level and efficiency of back-end sorting. Enterprises need to make specific analysis based on the local garbage classification promotion situation to ensure the input-output ratio. Of course, with the gradual flow of low-value recyclables to resource channels, the amount of garbage into the waste incineration plant is expected to reduce, waste incineration enterprises need to focus on the risk of overcapacity associated with it, at present, most incineration enterprises have synchronous layout of front-end collection and transportation links, can rely on their industrial chain advantages, near the water to seize the recycling market of low-value recyclables.

For decoration waste, due to its large volume and heavy quality, coupled with the large volatility of the generation time of such waste, the problems of land use, transportation and management costs faced in the front-end collection and transportation process will be more prominent. Whether enterprises can turn strong assets into weak assets, that is, reduce their dependence on project land by increasing mobility equipment, is the focus of future model innovation. In addition, with the advent of the intelligent era, how to achieve the "combination of software and hardware" is also the key to improve efficiency.

Overall, under the macro background of dual-carbon strategy and high-quality development, solid waste resource utilization has ushered in comprehensive policy benefits. While making good use of various policy tools, relevant enterprises still need to continue to explore business model innovation and build sustainable development capabilities of the industry. This is the key to a stable and long-term future.