Market Overview
Water and Wastewater Sector
China accounts for 21% of the world’s population but only possesses 6% of the world’s freshwater. Rapid urbanization and industrialization create enormous challenges to China’s water quantity and quality. Therefore, China has a substantial demand for recycling water technology.
Municipal Wastewater Treatment
From 2015 to 2020, China invested $81.6 billion in its municipal wastewater system, including sewage pipeline construction and maintenance, new treatment facilities, rainwater-sewage diversion systems, sludge mitigation, reclaimed water, and initial rainfall treatment. As of January 2020, China’s 10,113 water treatment plants treat wastewater for 95% of municipalities and 30% of rural areas. In 2020, 39,000 new wastewater treatment facilities were built. China plans to build or renovate 80,000 km of sewage collection pipeline networks and increase sewage treatment capacity by 20 million cubic meter/day between 2021-2025. In the next few years, China’s strong policy support and investment focus will present opportunities in sewage pipeline maintenance, black and odorous water bodies treatment, and wastewater treatment facilities construction in 2nd and 3rd tier cities. The rural wastewater treatment sub-sector will form a new battlefield for industry stakeholders.
Source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment
Industrial Wastewater Treatment
China discharged 55.7 billion cubic meters of wastewater in 2020, 26% of which originated from industrial sources. The industrial wastewater market in China will reach $19.4 billion by 2025. As part of China’s development strategy to transform into a cleaner and more sustainable economy, the country plans to invest $50 billion into various heavy polluting industries including textiles, printing, steel production, oil and gas extraction, coal mining, and pharmaceutical production.
Sludge Treatment
China’s sludge volume could reach 90 million tons by 2025. In 2015, China released its Water Action Plan, which requires 90% of cities to improve their sludge treatment capacity by the end of 2023. Experts estimate that between 2021 and 2025 China will invest around $8 billion to construct and install new sludge processing facilities. China’s sludge has low organic matter but possesses high silt and heavy metal content levels. The areas with the best market potential in this sub-sector include technologies for reducing water content in sludge, environment-friendly chemicals, high automation blending and injection equipment, and incineration technologies that are cost-effective and energy-efficient.
Source: Overview of China Sludge Treatment Market in 2019
Engineering and Services
China’s environmental engineering and services sector will benefit from rising government spending aimed at tackling worsening pollution issues. China’s total annual income for environmental services has grown rapidly, from around $86 billion in 2016 to more than $127 billion in 2019. Environmental engineering and services mainly include technology research and development services, consulting services, engineering and construction services, pollution facilities operation services, environmental trade and finance, environmental education, and training.
Market Opportunities
Medical Waste Treatment Market Overview
Waste generated by healthcare activities includes a broad range of materials, including used needles and syringes, soiled garments, body parts, diagnostic samples, blood, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and radioactive materials.
In China, medical waste mainly includes infectious waste, pathological waste, injury waste, pharmaceutical waste, and chemical waste. The demand for medical waste disposal has surged in China during the COVID-19 outbreak and will create opportunities in medical waste and broader hazardous waste treatment in the coming years.
China’s medical waste disposal capacity has jumped from 4,903 tons per day on average before the pandemic to 6,172 tons per day, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE). Nearly 26% of that capacity was developed to cope with COVID-19. In 2020, COVID-19 was estimated to bring about 162,000 tons of abandoned masks. Total medical waste was expected to increase by more than 25% last year.
However, there remains a gap in treatment capacity in China. Hazardous waste disposal technologies and equipment are in great demand. A few prefecture-level cities still do not have medical waste disposal facilities and must seek the help of neighboring cities. During the coronavirus outbreak, medical waste disposal facilities in fifty cities were reportedly overloaded or operating at full capacity. There was also a shortage of special medical waste transfer vehicles in several provinces. There were no sewage treatment facilities in twenty-five designated hospitals across the country, and eleven designated hospitals and urban wastewater treatment plants faced insufficient capacity.
According to an annual solid waste report released by MEE at the end of 2019, two-hundred large and medium-sized cities in China produced 817,000 tons of medical waste in 2018. The three provinces that currently generate the most medical waste are Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. On the city level, Shanghai is the largest producer of medical waste with 55,000 tons, followed by Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Harbin, and Shenzhen. These 10 cities generated 268,000 tons of medical waste, 32.9% of the national total.
Source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment
Medical Waste Treatment Market Opportunities
The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which is currently under development, anticipates a significant increase in the market for hazardous waste disposal.
China mainly conducts harmless medical waste treatment through concentrated medical waste disposal centers. In April 2020, the Chinese government unveiled an official implementation plan to enhance its medical waste disposal capability. The plan aims to require each of the identified 660 cities across the country to build at least one centralized medical waste disposal facility by the end of 2020. The plan also aims to build a national medical waste information platform by the end of 2021. The plan vows to establish a system for the collection, transportation, and disposal of medical waste in each county by June 2022, including the development of mobile or preprocessing facilities for remote areas.
Existing medical waste treatment methods in China, such as autoclaves, microwaves, and Chemical Disinfection, are comparatively simple but could generate secondary waste that would have to be buried or incinerated. Standards for incineration disposal will be strict, which will require more efficient and environmentally-friendly solutions. The market is also seeking non-incineration disposal technologies.
The outbreak of COVID-19 and the strong push from the Chinese government together created room for the expansion of the medical waste market. Growth in this market calls for significant investment to achieve the required level of proper medical waste disposal. The great market demand poses opportunities for U.S. companies of environmental equipment, management systems and environmental services.
Market Challenges
Medical Waste Treatment Market Challenges
Management best practices for medical waste are not well established in China. Many hospitals do not have proper collection and storage methods, and medical waste treatment processes are underdeveloped. Medical waste treatment companies in China must obtain a Hazardous Waste Business License, which has special requirements for equipment, staff, and techniques. As of 2018, a total of 407 hazardous waste business licenses have been issued nationwide for the disposal of medical waste in China. However, it has been difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to apply for these licenses.
Best Medical Waste Treatment Market Prospects
Incineration
The main technology of medical waste disposal is incineration, especially for infectious medical waste. The plasma method is an innovative technology for treating medical waste that kills microorganisms, destroys toxic drugs and toxic chemical agents remaining in cells, and removes metals in medical waste. The Chinese government has suggested that areas with more than five tons of daily medical waste collection build incineration and high-temperature sterilization facilities. Industry insiders also foresee investment opportunities in high-tech solutions, such as big data tracking systems and digital collection technologies that help improve the safety of incinerators.
Medical Waste Recycling
Currently, the recovery rate of medical waste is very low, while medical materials are in short supply. Many medical products, for instance, plastic products, can be recycled. There will be opportunities for technology to facilitate the recovery of high-value medical waste.
