The remnants of Shanghai's hazardous waste and how it's contained
Shanghai Solid Waste Disposal Center, located in Jiading District, is where most of the city's hazardous and medical waste ends up.
The most common household hazardous waste includes batteries, mercury-containing thermometers and containers of hazardous substances, like paint cans. After being collected from neighborhoods, hazardous waste will be sent to hazardous waste incineration plants around the city, and the parceled remnants will then be transported to the Shanghai Solid Waste Disposal Center for landfill.
The center owns two landfills, each with a capacity of over 300,000 tons. The first landfill, which was put into use in 2001, was already sealed after reaching capacity. Protected by concrete cut-off walls and leakage prevention layers made of HDPE film and geo-textiles, the landfill has half of its structure underground, while the top half was shaped into a 12-meter high artificial mountain covered with greenery.
Hazardous waste remnants are buried at the landfill.
The sealed landfill, covered with greenery, is protected by concrete cut-off walls and leakage prevention layers.
The center receives an average of 25,000 tons of hazardous waste remnants every year. About 200 tons comes from households, while the rest was produced by industrial enterprises.
According to the center, the second landfill has used up about 130,000 tons of its volume, and can serve for about another seven years.
To assure the safety of both landfills, underground water quality inspection is conducted every month in the area. Displacement monitoring tests are taken every three months, and soil quality tests are performed annually.
The center also operates 100 customized vans which transport medical waste from all of Shanghai’s hospitals every day. This will go through the center’s incineration lines before being labeled as ordinary solid waste, which will then be transported to the city’s solid waste centers for follow-up procedures. With three incineration lines, the center can deal with 122 tons of medical waste every day.
Shanghai Solid Waste Disposal Center also serves as the training center for environmental protection organizations’ projects about medical waste management and disposal.
Staff of Shanghai Solid Waste Disposal Center check the temperature of hazardous waste remnants.
