Garbage Disposal Practices in Different CountriesGarbage Disposal Practices in Different Countries

Garbage is the solid waste generated in human daily life and production. Due to its large quantity, complex and diverse composition, and characteristics of being polluting, resourceful, and social, it requires harmless, resourceful, reduced, and socialized treatment. If not properly handled, it will pollute the environment, affect environmental hygiene, waste resources, undermine production and living safety, and disrupt social harmony.

Effective garbage disposal means promptly removing the garbage, carrying out harmless treatment, and finally making rational use of it. The purposes of garbage disposal are harmlessness, resource utilization, and reduction.

The United States
On fixed days every week, urban and rural residents in the United States push their garbage bins to the roadside. Garbage collection trucks sent by the municipal department or private companies contracted with the municipal department will empty and clean these bins. Subsequently, the garbage will be transported to a transfer station for sorting. Part of it will be recycled, and the non-reusable part will be transported to a designated location for burial. In American communities, there is no free garbage disposal, and every household has to bear the cost of garbage collection and disposal.
The United States is a major garbage producer. Since the 1980s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has started to promote a new garbage charging system called "Pay As You Throw" (PAYT).

Japan
Due to the scarcity of land resources, Japan has always been a pioneer in garbage disposal. In the 1980s, Japan relied on garbage incineration more than any other country in the world, resulting in a serious excess of dioxin content in the atmosphere, making it a "dioxin powerhouse". To reduce dioxin, the Japanese government has formulated stricter garbage incineration emission standards and built large-scale incinerators. At the same time, it has launched a large-scale garbage classification and recycling campaign to reduce garbage and increase recycling.
(1) Landfill or Incineration: A Choice Between Two
(2) Classification and Reduction: Combining the Two
(3) Combining Profit and Humanity in Selecting Incineration Sites
(4) The Trend of Advanced and Harmless Incineration Technology

The United Kingdom
Garbage classification in the United Kingdom is carried out through legislation. Although the clauses formulated by local governments are not exactly the same, they are basically similar and very strict. If garbage is not disposed of according to regulations, the police in various parts of the UK will be mobilized to ensure the implementation of garbage recycling regulations.
Since the outdoor garbage bins in many British cities are cleaned once every two weeks, throwing garbage into outdoor bins too early may lead to the breeding of mosquitoes and flies. Therefore, the government has begun to use high fines to regulate residents' garbage disposal behavior. Problems such as overfull garbage bins and garbage falling out of garbage bags may result in a fine of 100 pounds. Residents who do not pay the fine will be summoned to court and then be fined 1000 pounds.

 

France
About 1 million tons of plastic garbage are generated in the French market every year, with a recycling rate of only 23%. To address this, France will invest 45 million euros in 2016 to increase the number of plastic garbage sorting and recycling points and optimize the layout of these points according to the population. The goal is to increase the recycling rate of plastic packaging waste to 46% by 2030.
Retailers of fruits and vegetables, as well as retail chain stores, oppose France's move to fully ban the use of disposable plastic bags starting from 2016. This measure will cause losses to retailers, increase the cost of bulk sales of fresh fruits and vegetables, and impose an additional cost of 300 million euros on merchants, indicating that the prices of fruits and vegetables will rise.
In June 2014, France passed an amendment proposed by the government, that is, to ban the use of disposable plastic bags from January 1, 2016. This amendment is part of the bill on energy transition. Every year in France, 5 billion bags are distributed at the checkout counter, which can hold a total of 12 billion weight units of fruits and vegetables.

Germany
In the 1980s, Germany faced the crisis of being surrounded by garbage, and the main garbage disposal method at that time was sanitary landfill. In 1991, the German government officially promulgated the Packaging Waste Act, which legally requires product producers and sellers to be responsible for recycling packaging waste.
Now, more than half of the municipal waste and production waste in Germany are recycled. In some fields, such as packaging, the recycling rate is over 80%. The recycling rate of construction waste is 86%. Each German resident recycles nearly 3 tons of garbage per year, which is equivalent to the weight of three small cars.
Germany aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in 2020 (compared to 1990), and the optimized municipal solid waste management system itself can reduce emissions by 52 million tons per year, accounting for about 10% of its annual emission reduction target (500 million tons).