City tightens rules on disposal of construction trash

Shanghai is to toughen the rules on the transport and disposal of construction waste from January, officials said yesterday.

Companies transporting construction waste will have their licenses revoked if they are caught three times in a month for violations such as failing to seal or put a cover on trucks and ships, overloading, illegal dumping, storing or treating construction project waste, or carrying illegal construction project garbage.

The current regulations will impose the penalty if drivers are caught in those violations within three months. “The new rules are stricter,” said Wang Hui, deputy chief of the policy and law department of the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau.

Transport companies will also lose their license if drivers cause an accident in which three or more people die within a year, or cause major environmental incidents or if they are subject to “intensive” public complaints.

“An information sharing system among police, traffic, maritime and urban management authorities will also be established to catch violators,” Wang said.

The new rules also include home decoration waste as construction waste and cover the requirements, standards, technology, policy support and design of construction waste recycling. They require trucks and ships carrying construction waste to be fitted with electronic devices to record routes, times and destinations.

Operators of disposal sites, transit points and sorting and recycling stations will face fines of up to 50,000 yuan (US$7,500) if they fail to record and report the amount of waste received to city, district greenery or public sanitation authorities, the rules state.

Operators must also record all waste transport vehicles and vessels using their facilities and report movements to the authorities. The new rules also require waste to be sorted and stacked separately by type.

With rapid urban construction in Shanghai, nearly 100 million tons of construction waste is produced every year compared with about 10 million tons in the 1990s, and “the large amount of construction waste has brought huge pressure on the city’s urban management,” said Zou Hua, chief of the bureau’s waste management department.

Shanghai began implementing rules and regulations on construction waste in 1992, and they have been amended and updated several times, said Zou.

“However, accompanying urban development, flaws also emerge as they do not cover all types of construction waste such as garbage produced during decoration and project mud, and they lack design on the recycling use of these garbage,” he said. 

Authorities will also step up recycling of construction garbage.

About 7.5 million tons of construction wastes in Shanghai will be recycled a year by 2020. Construction waste treatment and recycling facilities will be built in Minhang, Jiading and Baoshan districts and the Pudong New Area next year, said Chen Yijun, a bureau official.

Construction waste is used for greenery and reclamation at present. It can also be processed into water permeable bricks.