Chongqing- Endurance & ShinMaywa, a China-Japan joint venture in Chongqing, has solved leakage problems in waste transport services by relying on pioneering technologies and became a service provider for the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 (Hangzhou Asian Games).
Endurance & ShinMaywa's environmental sanitation projects for Hangzhou Asian Games. (iChongqing file photo)
Bid on the Hangzhou Asian Games
The Hangzhou Asian Games will be held from September 10 to 25, 2022. During 15 competition days, athletes will compete for 482 gold medals.
To build "the cleanest city in China," Hangzhou set an extremely high bar when inviting bids for sanitation projects:
- no sewage leakage during waste transfer
- no odor in the transfer stations
- the need for large stable waste transfer stations
When examining bidders' credentials, Hangzhou was surprised by Endurance & ShinMaywa.
This Chongqing-based company realized zero sewage leakage amid transfer, which is the first time in China, and even pioneered a system for processing the odor at the transfer stations.
Notably, the system can bring in fresh air from the outside to produce negative oxygen ions. At the same time, waste gas discharged at the transfer stations can be collected through the pipeline and then emitted.
Without a doubt, Endurance & ShinMaywa won the bid. It is worth mentioning that each project can reduce domestic waste by 15%-20% as the waste volume can be shrunk by two-thirds. For kitchen waste, even 70% can be reduced.
Now, Endurance & ShinMaywa operates about 400 large and medium-sized waste transfer stations in China and owns the most significant market share.
Difficulties in localization
For compressed waste transport, avoiding leakage is paramount. It will cause secondary pollution if waste and sewage leak into rivers, streams, or groundwater.
In 2006, Endurance & ShinMaywa introduced three world-leading waste processing technologies and transfer facilities from Japan.
But the technologies and facilities didn't work out as planned. In Japan, domestic waste sorting technologies are mature. After sorting, waste is divided into dry waste and wet waste. So there is no such problem as leakage. While in China, most waste belongs to the mixed type of dry and wet. After the waste is compressed, it is difficult to close the container tightly, which will result in leakage issues.
In 2018, a client of Endurance & ShinMaywa put forward a strict requirement: a fine of 500 yuan for leakage of a drop of sewage." This is not an accident. As China is raising the bar for environmental protection, our clients may raise a higher claim," said Wang Xu, General Manager of Endurance & ShinMaywa.
Independent development
Endurance & ShinMaywa try to innovate new technologies based on existing technologies when facing those difficulties. It invested tens of millions of yuan in developing and applying the patented technologies of "swappable gate" and "auto shielding gate."According to Wang, with traditional waste containers, waste can get stuck easily because of the rebound and collapse of the waste, thus resulting in dreg and sewage leakage. Using a movable door sheet, its "swappable gate" technology can close the gates of waste containers tightly, avoiding the rebound and entanglement of waste and solving the problem of stuck dreg.
In addition, the "auto shielding gate" technology can seal up the gates automatically without any gaps, thus solving the problem of sewage leakage. These new technologies, Endurance & ShinMaywa has more. Leaning on innovation, it has obtained 168 valid patents including 23 invention ones.