Problems and Strategies for the Market-Oreiented Collection and Disposal of Catering Wastes in China''''s Urban Areas
城市餐饮业泔脚垃圾市场化回收处置问题及对策分析

Urban catering industries in China are producing huge amount of catering wastes every day. Recently, most of cities in China have stipulated that the catering wastes are prohibited for feeding livestocks. Therefore, the management and disposal of the catering wastes have become a social problem. Taking Shanghai as study area, and based on data from both statistic yearbooks and field survey, this paper systematically discusses the problems existed in the process of catering wastes claim, rubbish fee collection, reduction of rubish sources, and disposal ways. The resohs show that there is about 20 000 restaurants in study area and only 5 958 are on the list of government administration. The recorded total amount of catering wastes discharge is 335.86 tons per day while the surveyed amount of catering wastes is about 1 100 tons per day. About 70 percent of restaurants did not declare their catering wastes to the municipal administration. A small money was collected from the restaurants for their catering wastes treatment, and about 50 percent of restaurants treated the catering wastes as ordinary solid waste so as to elude relevant charges. As a result, the total charge for rubbish treatment do not cover actual cost of wastes treatment. About 75 percent restaurants leave the catering wastes treated by enterprises subordinated with the municipal administration, while only 10 percent deal the catering wastes in open market. The restaurants mainly depend on the municipal administration to treat the catering wastes. In response to above problems, the authors propose some preliminary countermeasures for the collection and disposal of catering wastes. The owners of restaurants should encourage the customers ordering dishes appropriately and taking away the leftover once the dishes are not finished. A proper sum of fees should be collected from the owner of restaurants to enhance their awareness of social and environmental responsibilities. And the markets for reuse of catering wastes should be established by government.