Where some see waste, firms smell opportunity

Companies move to help city in garbage-sorting campaign and make money along the way

Guangzhou businesses are moving to take advantage of opportunities arising from a garbage-sorting campaign the local government embarked on in July to deal with the city's increasing amounts of waste.

Guangzhou Joraform Environmental Co, which was launched in March, has installed eight kitchen-waste composters in government canteens and residential developments.

The company is selling a version of the machine with a 100 kilogram capacity for about 300,000 yuan ($47.900) and a version with a 200 kilogram capacity for about 400,000 yuan, said Xie Weiming, a director on the company's board.

Guangzhou has a need for at least 1,000 of the composters, he said.

Having the third-largest economy of any Chinese city and a population of 12.7 million, Guangzhou produces 7,500 tons of kitchen waste a day, an amount making up half of all residential waste in the city, according to the local urban management commission.

Meanwhile, Yujin Group of China, headquartered in Kaifeng, Henan province, set up a subsidiary in Guangzhou in October to treat sludge coming from Guangzhou sewage treatment plants.

The group is scheduled to start building the first phase of the project, which will be capable of treating 2,000 tons of sludge a day, in December. That amount is less than the 2,425 tons of sludge that is produced every day by Guangzhou's seven sewage treatment plants, said Zhang Chunping, general manager of the Guangzhou Yujin Solid Waste Treatment and Comprehensive Utilization Co.

Much of the sludge is now being dumped into landfills, a practice that many think is unsustainable.

"People's awareness of the need for environmental protection has improved significantly in the past two years," Zhang said. "So has the government's policy support.

"The Guangzhou government is doing a lot to treat solid waste and is moving ahead of many other cities in sorting garbage. Mayor Chen Jianhua is willing to be called Mayor Garbage. As an industrially developed city, Guangzhou produces a large amount of industrial sewage."

The company is betting that opportunities will arise from policies included in the country's 2011-15 plan on the energy-saving and environmental protection industries, which the State Council released in June, he said.

The plan pledges to support industries in their land use, fiscal spending, fundraising and use of technology.

Thierry Wong, an adviser to Guangzhou Joraform, sees opportunities arising from the country's pledge to cut emissions and to recycle.