Is there money to be made in opening a garbage disposal plant?

Longtang Town, Qingyuan, Guangdong dismantles millions of tons of foreign garbage annually Seventy percent of the world's electronic waste is dumped into China, which is becoming the world's leading electronic waste dump! In the country's eight major electronic foreign garbage distribution center, Guangdong Shantou Guiyu town, Qingyuan Longtang town, South China Sea Dali town topped the list, accounting for half of the national electronic foreign garbage import market! The toxic substances contained in electronic foreign garbage after simple dismantling, waste water, waste gas and secondary waste generated to the environment caused by pollution, is "100 years can not be restored"! Although the harm to the human body is not obvious, the toxic substances will have a serious impact on children's brain development! Although the country expressly prohibit the import of electronic foreign garbage, but in the high profitability of the drive, the unscrupulous elements do not hesitate to take risks. Some local governments even treat the processing of electronic foreign garbage as a local pillar industry, turning a blind eye to the pollution problems it generates. Today, electronic foreign garbage has become a major problem in China's environmental protection governance. As the major town of electronic foreign garbage, Guangdong, the treatment of foreign garbage pollution has reached a point of no delay. We will launch a series of reports from today, focusing on the formation of the electronic foreign garbage industry chain in Guangdong and its reasons, and discussing ways to manage this environmental problem. Electronic foreign garbage is the common name for electronic solid waste, including all kinds of waste computers, communication equipment, televisions, refrigerators, air-conditioners, as well as obsolete precision electronic instruments and meters. At present, the world produces about 500 million tons of electronic foreign waste every year, mainly from developed countries. The reporter learned that a large amount of electronic foreign garbage pouring into China flows into illegal waste treatment plants. In Guangdong, the dismantling town of Shantou Guiyu Town was severely cracked down by the government some years ago, and Longtang Town in Qingyuan, a town with more than 30 years of experience in electronic and foreign waste treatment, began to play the role of dismantling centers. Longtang town is located in the east of Qingyuan city, 20 kilometers away from the city center. This town of only 100,000 people, there are more than 1,000 illegal dismantling factories, more than 50,000 people dismantling team every day non-stop labor, annual dismantling of nearly one million tons of electronic foreign waste! The reporter saw in Longtang Township, where almost all the small farmhouses are recycling workshops for all kinds of electronic wastes, and there is no lack of women and children in these workshops. "Most of them are dismantled with their bare hands, using hammers and coal stoves to dismantle computers and photocopiers, without any protective measures at all." A local villager told reporters that the average wage for handling e-waste is about 20 yuan a day. For a meager salary, migrant workers from Hunan and Hubei joined the primitive dismantling industry along with locals. Without any protection, many have skin ulcers and suffer from respiratory diseases and kidney stones. In the past three years, with the soaring prices of copper, aluminum and other metals, Longtang Township has been handling 2,000 standard containers of electronic foreign garbage per month, sometimes even more than 3,000, each weighing 25 tons! The dismantling and processing of electronic foreign garbage has become a major local industry and source of income. "Foreign garbage village" daily smoke rolling June 1 morning, the reporter came to Longtang town center 2 kilometers from the village of Dingan. Passers-by told reporters, "Here is the town's most foreign garbage treatment plant in a village, the whole village people do this line of work." Before entering the village, the reporter saw black smoke rolling out from afar, the air filled with a pungent smell. Roadside a residential compound, almost all piled up all kinds of waste electrical appliances, most of which have been dismantled into blocks. Local villagers told reporters that the local waste electronic products processing plant will produce a lot of smoke when the burning of electrical parts, "convergence during the day, the night on the unscrupulous". After the car into the village of Dingan, the reporter saw the roadside treatment plant of large and small one next to another, a group of men and women are gathered around a pile of waste electrical appliances, concentrate on dismantling spare parts. The temperature that day was as high as 35 degrees Celsius, each yard almost all male workers standing bare-chested by the fire, fiddling with the accessories that are burning. "Now the whole Ding'an village has become a 'foreign garbage village', with at least 200 large and small factories, and they are still increasing every day!" An old man in the village told reporters, "There is money to be made in this business! Several of our children who used to work outside are now coming back to do this business." He told the reporter that these used foreign electrical appliances are shipped in containers by big bosses from the South China Sea area, and then distributed to various large and small factories or workshops in the village. "It is marked with all unintelligible words, and the workers just need to identify what is copper and aluminum, and what is iron and plastic on the line." At the foot of Dingan Village, the reporter saw that a large number of mountains and forests have been destroyed, all built to deal with foreign garbage plant. Thousands of treatment plants to form an industrial chain In Dingan Village, the local people open foreign garbage treatment plant is not too much, most of the treatment plant is Shaoyang, Hunan people open. Shaoyang people Liu boss came to Ding'an village has been 5 years. 5 years ago, he came to Ding'an with his fellow villagers, spent more than 20,000 yuan to rent more than 200 square meters of plant, and did the treatment of electronic foreign garbage business. Now, he is a millionaire with a car and a house. "It's a good business, as long as there are workers, you can make a lot of money." Liu boss told reporters, "Here more than 200 treatment plants, none of them have business license, but business as usual." In the reporter's questioning, Liu boss only revealed, "In fact, we still have to pay some fees to the relevant departments every month, our factory 10 workers, every month to pay more than 10,000 yuan. But even after paying this money, we still have to earn." The reporter's subsequent investigation confirmed that what Liu boss said is true, a random sample of more than 10 processing plants are no industrial and commercial license. According to another processing plant owner Mr. Liang revealed that the local government has long been the industry as one of the pillar industries, only this Dingan Village annual output value of 700 million to 800 million yuan, while the entire town has more than 3 billion yuan of output value. According to a local treatment plant, a boss who wished to remain anonymous, there are at least 1,000 electronic and foreign garbage factories in the whole town of Longtang, and an industrial chain of production, marketing, transportation and processing has been formed. According to the boss, at least more than 2,000 containers of electronic foreign garbage are shipped to Dingan Village every month, and at the end of each year and the beginning of the peak of the elimination of foreign waste electrical appliances, the foreign garbage shipped is two or three times the usual. According to this calculation, at least 50,000 tons of electronic foreign garbage are shipped to Dingan Village every month! Due to the abundant supply, every day there are metal recyclers from all over the country to negotiate business, "sometimes the price of metal recycling here has even become a benchmark across the country!" A large amount of secondary waste dumped in the open According to environmental experts, electronic foreign garbage is dismantled by illegal small workshops with backward technology, which will cause great damage to the local environment and residents' health. It is understood that the manufacture of a personal computer requires the use of 700 kinds of chemical raw materials, half of which contain toxins harmful to human health, if the computer devices burned processing, will release a large number of harmful toxic gases, air pollution, and ultimately the formation of acid rain. If lead enters the soil, it will contaminate water sources, endangering humans, plants and microorganisms. According to Greenpeace statistics, in areas with serious electronic waste pollution, the rate of local children infected with respiratory diseases is three times that of children in normal areas. The reporter investigated in Longtang Township and learned that for every ton of electronic foreign garbage handled by local treatment plants and small workshops, more than half of the fittings become useless and polluted garbage after multiple treatments, and a large amount of e-waste materials and treatment residues are not recycled but simply dumped in open fields, next to the riverbanks, in water ponds, wetlands, rivers and irrigation canals. The reporter also learned another fact: many people who have been working in dismantling for a long time have almost all of their hands changed, either red or swollen, but they don't know what's wrong with them. A Hunan girl working in the area told reporters, "We know that doing this is not good for health, generally do not dare to do it for too long, do a few years to go home. There are some people who have been doing it for a long time, but also inexplicably sick, and finally can only go home." Longtang Town Li deputy mayor Recycling treatment of foreign garbage completely for economic considerations June 1, 8 pm, the reporter interviewed Li deputy mayor in Longtang Township Town Hall. Deputy Mayor Li admitted that the town currently has at least 1,000 large and small factories are engaged in the processing of electronic foreign garbage, and have not done business license, "These are from the end of the 1970s on the start of the construction of the factory, is a historical legacy of the problem, a moment is difficult to outlaw all of them." Deputy Mayor Li said that the processing of electronic foreign garbage has become an important channel to solve the economic resources of local farmers, and has formed an industry. Since the state has strictly prohibited the importation and processing of electronic foreign garbage, why does the local government still allow it to develop at will? Deputy Mayor Li said that the recycling and processing of these foreign garbage is entirely for economic considerations, and this industry has brought a large amount of metal raw materials to the country every year, "the problem in front of the government now is how to standardize and unify the operation of the problem." On the pollution of electronic foreign garbage, deputy mayor Li said: "At present, Longtang Township Township has more than 20 large-scale processing plant in the township all environmental protection registration, by the environmental protection office personnel 24 hours a day to track the remaining garbage, and require the processing plant will be transported to a unified landfill plant for disposal." As for the management of the many other small treatment plants, "the violators will be penalized and banned." During the interview, Deputy Mayor Li and the present Deputy Director Xian of Qingcheng District Safety Production Supervision Administration of Qingyuan City unanimously told the reporter: "In order to standardize the electronic and foreign garbage disposal industry, the town has now obtained the consent of the higher level of government to set up two exclusive zones in Longtang Township, and it is proposed that all of the more than 1,000 electronic and foreign garbage disposal factories existing in the township should be included in the standardization of the operation, and the project has already obtained the approval from the Qingyuan Environmental Protection Bureau." Regarding the fact that some treatment plant owners disclosed that they had to pay more than 10,000 yuan per month to the government for industrial and commercial, tax and environmental protection fees, Deputy Mayor Li categorically said, "The government has absolutely not charged them a penny! But industry and commerce, the tax department whether to collect money we do not know." Environmental experts Not timely management, will jeopardize the Guangdong soil and water "polluted land and water 100 years can not be restored." Speaking of electronic foreign garbage, Tongji University Solid Waste Research Institute Director Prof. He Pinjing was very excited, "Our country to deal with their own garbage is already enough of a headache, where to consume foreign garbage!" He Pinjing analyzed that the secondary pollutants generated by the garbage treatment costs are very high, waste classification and recycling is only profitable under the premise of secondary pollution control is not strict. And garbage in the storage process will certainly produce waste water, exhaust gas, residues and other pollutants, some of this pollution is visible, some invisible, and even with the flow of air and water diffusion, "infinite harm". In addition, the water used to clean the garbage and residual secondary waste everywhere, not only on the surface of the water body caused by pollution, but also into the ground, contamination of drinking water. According to environmental experts, electronic products contain lead, mercury, brominated flame retardants and other toxic and harmful substances. Compared with other garbage, electronic waste is extremely hazardous, with a long pollution time, pollution hazards and other characteristics. A used five batteries buried in the soil, can make a few square meters range of land in a few years, and the impact of the whole soil will last half a century. If not handled properly, the harmful and toxic substances in e-waste will enter the soil, which will seriously contaminate water sources and ultimately jeopardize the survival of human beings, plants and microorganisms. What's especially worrying is that e-waste can also have a serious impact on children's brain development.