Environmental protection projects in many places must win the trust of the people in the construction of environmental protection facilities.
In recent years, mass incidents caused by the construction of environmental protection facilities such as garbage, sewage and hazardous waste have occurred from time to time, and the final result of most incidents is "stop as soon as it is noisy". On the one hand, the grim environmental situation calls for the construction of new environmental protection facilities, and on the other hand, it is the public’s questioning and neighborhood avoidance effect. Some environmental protection facilities are embarrassed by the urgent need and the difficulty of landing in China, and finally fall into a zero-sum dilemma.
Environmental protection facilities in many places have encountered "stopping as soon as they make trouble"
On June 27th, some people in Ningxiang County, Hunan Province gathered in front of the county government to oppose the construction of waste incineration projects. On June 25, residents of Xiantao City, Hubei Province took to the streets to protest that the site selection and environmental assessment of the local waste incineration power plant had not been fully solicited. On April 12th, Haiyan County Government of Zhejiang Province issued a public announcement on the site selection of waste incineration power plant. On the 20th, some people around the site selection gathered in the county government and blocked roads to protest against the project. In April, there were also mass protests against waste incineration projects in Wanning City, Hainan Province and Ganxian County, Jiangxi Province.
In fact, in recent years, the "neighborhood effect" against garbage incineration has not been broken. The result of the people’s protests is that the project has run aground. For example, the Xiantao municipal government stopped the project that had already started construction, and Haiyan county announced that it would stop the construction of the domestic waste incineration project.
The reason why the contradiction broke out in the near future is that the rapid development of China in the past decade has brought about an increase in the amount of garbage, which has made landfills everywhere in a hurry. According to the data of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, in 2013, the annual removal volume of municipal solid waste in China reached 172,385,800 tons. Two-thirds of the more than 600 large and medium-sized cities in China are surrounded by garbage, and a quarter of them have no suitable places to pile up garbage. The situation of "garbage siege" in big cities with a population of over 10 million, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, is even more serious.
Zhang Yi, dean of Shanghai Environmental Sanitation Engineering Design Institute, said that the land area required by waste incineration plant is 1/20-1/15 of that of waste sanitary landfill, and the volume of waste can be reduced by 90% through incineration, and the pollution per ton of waste is only about 1/50 of that of landfill. "Although the waste incineration technology needs further improvement, it is an effective way to realize the harmless, reduced and resource treatment of waste at present."
In addition to garbage incineration, environmental protection infrastructure such as sewage treatment plants, hazardous waste disposal plants and garbage transfer stations have almost been opposed by the public to varying degrees in the construction process in recent years. In April this year, Yubei District of Chongqing was protested by residents for building a large-scale domestic waste transfer station near the Jinxiu City Community in Chang ‘an, and the project under construction was finally suspended. In 2014, Shenyang Jinjiawan Sewage Treatment Plant was "stopped" by the environmental protection department due to strong opposition from the surrounding citizens. Changsha Hazardous Waste Disposal Center was established in 2006 as a large-scale public welfare environmental protection project invested by special funds from the central government. However, due to protests from surrounding villagers, the project was postponed for eight years.
Neighborhood effect caused by many reasons
Why are environmental protection facilities that originally brought good ecological effects to the public rejected? Chang Jiwen, deputy director of the Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy of the State Council Development Research Center, said that environmental protection facilities will also produce pollution. For projects suspected of producing pollution, it is common for the public to question or even protest out of concern for their own rights and interests.
Due to the lag of China’s environmental protection infrastructure, the severe environmental situation urgently needs to build new environmental treatment facilities, but some environmental protection facilities have been questioned by the public, which has led to the "Not In My Back Yard" neighborhood effect. Experts say that if environmental protection facilities "stop as soon as they make trouble", in this vicious interaction, it will eventually be a zero-sum dilemma in which the interests of the government, enterprises and the public are lost.
Zhang Yi believes that the causes of the "neighborhood effect" are very complicated. The first is the lack of credibility caused by regulatory loopholes. China’s environmental protection industry started late, and some aspects such as emission standards and environmental supervision are not strict enough. Some environmental protection projects such as garbage incineration and sewage treatment plants are poorly operated, pollution exceeds the standard, odor and smoke are not handled properly or even smuggled, which affects the image of the whole industry, and environmental supervision is lacking, causing bad impression and resistance to the public.
Secondly, the public’s awareness of self-maintenance of environmental interests is increasing, but the government and enterprises lack transparent and open project information, equal and effective communication mechanism and fair and reasonable compensation mechanism, and the site selection process of some projects is not open enough and the environmental assessment is not standardized enough. It can be seen from the protests of waste incineration that although the local government has taken some explanations and communication work, the emergency measures of cramming for the Buddha’s feet are difficult to convince the public, and the local people hold a negative attitude towards almost all aspects of decision-making, planning, environmental assessment, site selection and construction of waste incineration plants. In the information vacuum, the pollutants such as dioxin, odor and waste water were misled by people, which caused panic among the surrounding residents and then turned into organized mass incidents after being used. In addition, there is the issue of public acceptance.
In addition, vicious competition in some environmental protection industries is also the main cause of public anxiety. An industry insider said that at present, one ton of garbage incineration can generate about 360 kWh. According to the current on-grid electricity price of 0.65 yuan per kWh, if the technology passes the standard and the operation is proper, the power generation income will exceed the operating cost. Coupled with the subsidy of garbage disposal fee, franchising and stable income, the garbage incineration industry has made considerable profits. "Therefore, the competition in the industry has been fierce in recent years, and various capitals have entered, which has led to the bidding for garbage disposal fees of garbage incineration projects launched in various places in recent years.
"A good project can’t be done at a low price." Zhang Yi warned. People in the industry are worried that some enterprises can really operate effectively and meet the emission standards after winning the bid at a low price. If the government raises the price well, if the government does not raise the price, it can only sacrifice environmental protection and falsify profits.
The construction of environmental protection facilities must win the trust of the people
Experts and industry insiders said that technology is not the core issue in order to eliminate public anxiety about environmental protection facilities. The key lies in whether environmental protection supervision is strict, whether public participation in environmental protection is in place, and whether environmental protection facilities adhere to public welfare. In order to regain the public’s credibility to the government and enterprises, strict supervision measures must be taken first.
"Environmental protection projects, including waste incineration, must fulfill their commitments, manage them in a standardized way, and cannot be discharged in excess." Zhang Yi said. The relevant departments have also recognized this and accelerated the updating of the operating standards of environmental protection facilities. For example, the new "Pollution Control Standard for Domestic Waste Incineration" was fully implemented on January 1, 2016, and the new national standard has stricter emission control, and the emission concentration limit of major pollutants has basically been equivalent to the EU standard. Experts and insiders suggest that the existing environmental protection facilities should be strictly checked for the implementation of various environmental norms and standards in strict accordance with the provisions of the new environmental protection law, unqualified facilities should be rectified within a time limit, pollutant discharge of large-scale environmental protection projects should be detected online, and offenders such as fraud should be severely punished according to law.
Waste incineration plants and sewage treatment plants have also encountered public panic abroad, but after years of benign communication with the media and the public, public anxiety has finally subsided. Zhang Yi said that the government, enterprises and the public should interact in the whole process of environmental protection project construction, and work together to create an environmental protection project with "open information, transparent operation, beautiful environment, people-oriented and real environmental protection". The public can query the pollutant emission index data in real time, and the public can visit and inquire at the incineration plant by making an appointment. Enterprises regularly announce relevant information, accept social supervision, and build fitness and medical public facilities for surrounding residents, or subsidize electricity prices and garbage disposal fees.
In addition, people in the industry also reminded that at present, many enterprises pay more attention to the economic benefits of environmental protection facilities, such as charging treatment fees and power generation income from garbage incineration. In the bidding process of environmental protection facilities, we should not only choose the low price, but also comprehensively consider the strength of enterprises, strengthen industry self-discipline and information disclosure, and avoid "bad money driving out good money"