Two large machines are buzzing and emitting a slight odor of fermentation inside the kitchen waste disposal room. The 40-square-meter room is in the corner of a residential district in Beijing's Xicheng district.
Food scraps from more than 2,100 households and a canteen are "swallowed" by these two machines and undergo deep processing.
Sun Chunming, of the property service center, says each machine can dispose of 500 kilograms of kitchen waste a day. The machine grinds the food scraps and through a proprietary microbial process, 70 percent of the waste is converted into water, carbon dioxide and organic solids that can be further refined into fertilizer.
"Together the two machines can produce around 1,000 kilograms of fertilizer a day and the fertilizer is applied to nearby green spaces," Sun says.
The on-site process is used in more than 30 canteens in China's central government agencies, municipal commissions, and some schools in Beijing. Lin Jinwen, an official from Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management, says 128 canteens in government agencies are receiving subsidies to install this disposal equipment.
However, it is hard to spread the on-site kitchen waste treatment to restaurants and catering businesses as they are unwilling to pay for these equipment.
CHINA'S CHALLENGE
Liu Jianguo, professor of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, says the disposal of kitchen waste is a challenge with Chinese characteristics. China has a long-established food culture and sophisticated cooking styles. The nature of food scraps is different from that in other countries as they contain more oil and salt. They cannot easily be incinerated like other garbage and will pollute underground water if they are sent directly to landfills.
"In Japan and some other countries, restaurants have to bear the cost of food waste disposal. However in China, restaurants do not have to pay," Liu says.
China's growing food consumption has brought a rapid growth in food waste.
In Beijing and other big cities that boost thriving catering business, the problem is particularly serious.
According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of City Management, about 2,600 tonnes of kitchen waste is produced by more than 40,000 restaurants and dining halls of institutions and schools every day and the amount is expected to reach 2,900 tonnes in 2020. However, the city's 10 food waste treatment centers, together with on-site treatment equipment, can handle only 2,000 tons per day.
