Amount of disposed waste in China 1990-2023

In the last decades, the amount of garbage being disposed in China has soared, reaching approximately 254.1 million tons as of 2023. During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the annual amount of garbage had decreased to around 235 million tons, declining for the first time in many years. However, this drop was only short-lived, and the amount of garbage disposed in 2021 already exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Pollution and waste in ChinaBeing the most populated country in the world with a constantly growing population and economy, China was faced with multiple problems. For example, the increasing vehicle traffic on roads and the low air quality, subsequently the trash volume as well. The issue is particularly severe in prosperous the urban areas, and not to mention the trash imported to China from the rest of the world, which was put to a halt in 2018. Historically, the Chinese garbage handling ideology was landfill, however, due to shortage of land around cities and secondary pollution caused by illegal dumping, especially in rural areas, the ratio of incineration has been increasing in recent years, despite the fact that incineration poses serious health problems to citizens by emitting various toxic by-products. Rise of environmental awareness in ChinaMany of the developed countries in the west have already adopted a more comprehensive way of dealing with waste, emphasizing on reducing the amount of waste produced at the beginning, with attention also put on recycling useful waste. Under the “Made in China 2025” strategic plan, China is trying to follow suit. Fortunately, with the economic growth, the environmental awareness in China is also on the rise, with concern rising especially about disposable or non-recyclable products. Many also consider everyone is responsible to reduce plastic and packaging, including manufacturers, governments, vendors, as well as the consumers themselves. Individuals have also begun to enforce consumer power by buying products made from recycled material and boycotting products which are not and the vendors who sell a lot of such products, whereas other individual actions involved for protecting the environment were reusing of disposable items and paying extra.

在过去的几十年里，我国垃圾处置量激增，截至2023年，已达到约2.541亿吨。在2020年COVID-19疫情爆发期间，年度垃圾量降至约2.35亿吨，这是多年来首次出现下降。然而，这一下降趋势并未持续，2021年垃圾处置量已超过疫情前水平。作为世界上人口最多的国家，我国正面临着人口和经济持续增长所带来的诸多问题。例如，道路上的车辆流量增加以及空气质量下降，随之而来的是垃圾量的增加。这一问题在城市发达地区尤为严重，更不用说从世界其他地区进口到我国的垃圾，这些在2018年已经停止。历史上，我国垃圾处理理念以填埋为主，然而，由于城市周边土地短缺以及非法倾倒造成的二次污染，尤其是农村地区，近年来，尽管焚烧会对公民健康造成严重问题，排放各种有毒副产物，但焚烧的比例却在不断增加。随着环保意识的提升，许多发达国家已经采用了一种更为全面处理垃圾的方法，强调在垃圾产生初期就减少垃圾量，同时关注有用废物的回收。在“中国制造2025”战略规划下，我国也在努力效仿。幸运的是，随着经济增长，我国的环保意识也在提升，尤其是对一次性或不可回收产品的关注日益增加。许多人认为，每个人都应对减少塑料和包装负责，包括制造商、政府、商家以及消费者自身。个人也开始通过购买由回收材料制成的产品，抵制不使用回收材料的产品以及销售大量此类产品的商家，来行使消费者的力量，而其他个人保护环境的行动还包括重复使用一次性物品和支付额外费用。