IFAT CHINA 2006: Who Can Conquer China’s Mountains of Garbage?

Use as thermal energy, compost, recycle – China is looking to catch up to Western standards in dealing with its immense waste disposal problem. The environment trade fair IFAT China provides foreign companies with the chance to present their technologies and services in a country willing to make investment in Shanghai from June 27 to 30, 2006.

China has become a significant economic power with current growth rates of approx. nine percent annually. However, this rapid economic development is connected with the continually escalating use of natural resources and increasing pollution. For example, household waste in Chinese cities will increase from about 190 million tons in 2004 to 480 million tons annually over the next 25 years according to an estimate by the German Federal Agency for Foreign Trade (bfai).
Only approximately one-fifth of this is disposed of properly at the current time. The rest lands untreated on insufficiently safeguarded dumps.

According to information provided by the magazine “China International Business”, approximately five million tons of steel, 0.2 million tons of non-ferrous metals and 1.4 million tons of paper land in the garbage every year – valuable raw materials, which can be recycled efficiently using appropriate collection, sorting and processing technologies. There is also a great need for treating hazardous waste. For example, the German Chamber of Commerce for Foreign Business estimates that approx. 90 percent of partially infectious hospital waste winds up in household garbage dumps untreated. For industrial waste, Chinese laws stipulate that each company must dispose of its waste itself and set up appropriate dumpsites for non-recyclable waste. Due to lack of appropriate sanctions, however, plants seldom have sufficiently safeguarded landfills. The Chinese government has recognized the present and upcoming environmental problems and is facing them with increased investments. Expenditures of the equivalent of 14 billion euros are planned this year. The investments are to increase by an average of 12 percent annually from 2006 to 2010 according to the next five-year plan. Consequently 25 million euros is forecast for the year 2010.

With a look at electricity bottlenecks in the country, an increasing number of cities are betting on garbage incineration, in which energy can be produced. Large projects for regulated waste collection and treatment are underway in all large cities in the country. For example, a whole series of new disposal facilities are to be built in Beijing by the time of the Olympics in 2008, including three modern waste dumps, three incineration facilities and two waste handling stations. Waste handling capacity of the city should be increased to 12,500 tons per day with these facilities, according to the experts at bfai. The country is striving to implement more consistent hygiene management, not the least due to the background of the SARS epidemic. A program of the Chinese Ministry of the Environment plans establishment of 300 central treatment centers for hospital waste. According to experience of the German Chamber of Commerce for Foreign Business, German solutions and technologies have a very good reputation in the Chinese environment industry thanks to their quality and adaptability. Products in demand are composting facilities, systems for thermal recycling with associated flue gas purification technology, sorting facilities, burning gas produced by decomposing waste as well as technologies for treating hazardous waste and hospital waste.

IFAT CHINA will again provide companies from throughout the world with an excellent opportunity to present corresponding technologies and services to the Chinese market June 27 to 30, 2006. This environment trade fair is considered an international networking platform; 252 exhibitors from 17 countries already initiated successful business and established valuable direct contacts at is premier in 2004.



About IFAT CHINA
The 2nd International Trade Fair for Environmental Protection will take place at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) in China from June 27 - 30, 2006. IFAT CHINA is the comprehensive exhibition in the Asian market for practice-oriented solutions in the key sectors for environmental protection including water supply, sewage, waste disposal, recycling, air pollution control, environmental technology and environmentally sound energy sources. The trade fair is international in character and is accompanied by a professional supporting program. IFAT CHINA 2004 recorded 252 exhibitors from 17 countries und about 9.500 visitors from 69 countries.

Organizers
• Munich Trade Fairs International Group (MMI)
• Shanghai New International Expo Centre Co., Ltd. (SNIEC)
Organizing Partner
• Munich Trade Fairs (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Co-Organizer
• China Association of Resources Comprehensive Utilization (CARCU)
Supporters
• NDRC - National Development and Reform Commission, PR China
• Ministry of Science and Technology, PR China
• Ministry of Land and Resources, PR China
• Ministry of Agriculture, PR China
• Ministry of Water Resources, PR China
• SEPA - State Environmental Protection Administration, PR China
• Professional Association Contact Office of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, PR China
• Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany
• Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection, Germany
International Partners
• EWA - European Water Association
• VKS - Association of Municipal Waste Management and City Cleaning in the VKU
• DWA - German Association for Water, Waste Water and Waste
• DVGW - German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water
• ISWA - International Solid Waste Association
• GDCh - Water Chemical Society - Division of the German Chemical Society, Germany

About the Munich Trade Fairs International Group (MMI)
Messe München International (MMI, Munich Fairs International Group) is one of the world´s leading trade-fair companies. It organises around 40 trade fairs for capital and consumer goods, and key high-tech industries. Each year over 30,000 exhibitors from more than 90 countries, and over two million visitors from around 180 countries take part in the events in Munich. Together with its subsidiary company IMAG Internationaler Messe- und Ausstellungsdienst GmbH, MMI organises trade fairs in Asia and North and South America. With five subsidiaries abroad and 75 foreign representatives, looking after 89 countries, MMI has a truly global network.

Additional information is available at www.ifat-china.com

Contact person for the press
Petra Gagel
Phone: +49 89 / 9 49-20662, Fax: +49 89 / 9 49-20669
E-mail: petra.gagel@messe-muenchen.de


This release was published on openPR.