Sorting analysis of the municipal solid waste and of the source separated bio-organic and rest waste in the districts of Beifangyiyuan and Quanyuan.
For the third time in my life i could observe and participate in a waste sorting analysis. First in Brazil, then Germany, now here in China. Most of the people i know would never imagine doing this, but well, someone has to do it. It is not so bad, i keep saying to myself! And anyway, if you want to understand the waste and the problems related to it, you better know with what your dealing.....
The day began early on that sunny Saturday. After a relatively long ride with the taxi we arrived at the Quanyuan district (south of Sy). Met the workers of the project in that area. One of their tasks is to control the amount of the separated waste which is being delivered everyday by each household. Each household receives plastics with the number of their household, black for the bio-waste and blue for the rest, and they bring them down to the collection area near their building. (I was told that, normally in China people take their waste out in the morning, when they go out.)
After collecting the waste, i guess we had maybe 60Kg, we took a cab, and i wonder if the driver knew about the content of the bags, anyway, the black plastics bags sometimes do not really retain the leachate....
So, we had our samples, and we had much work to do, but before, some "shopping". Here i am again, buying things which i don't know how to bring home. But i just loved this vase...... ;-P
And also, what could not be missing: EATING. This was a special restaurant for eating bones (need to check the Chinese name), but we had bones, eggplant, tofu, potato salad, and fried rice and noodles. It was, like usual, a way too much food! And imagine, everything for only 4 euros. Fact: the restaurants give their waste food for animals feeding. So, what we don´t eat, the pigs eat, and then we eat the pigs....
So, after a small rest, we got started. This was the team (and myself), 3 master students Zhang Hailian, Liu Xiansong, and the other guy i forgot the name, since i never saw it written.....buh, so difficult to remember the names of the people....(Check references for the international standard for waste sorting analysis)
The hard work. The sorting table consists of a screen, so that the fine fraction (smaller than 10mm) is separated. The different fractions are then sorted into the categories: plastic, paper, glass, metal, hazardous (serynges, batteries), complex (plastic with different layers), textile, wood/bamboo and the organic itself.
But we are laughing, and somehow, even having fun!!! Well, here i think we were laughing because we were, after 3 hours, almost finished.....
The sorting analysis is done once a month, and the bio-organic waste is used for the anaerobic fermentation and composting (and the MSW for the landfill reactors) experiments.
So, i still need to confirm if the waste which is being separated goes together with the normal non-separated waste to the landfill. But i think so, which is a pity!
