The Development And Reform Commission Has Invested 2.68 Billion Yuan In The Construction Of Medical Waste, And The Expansion Of The Industry Is Imminent, And Enterprises Are Rushing To Make A Layout

Under the new crown pneumonia epidemic situation, the medical waste treatment industry has been paid attention again, and the industry has also ushered in re expansion.

On September 7, the national development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on its official public account that the national development and Reform Commission once again issued an investment of 2.68 billion yuan from the central budget to support the construction of national capacity for medical waste disposal. In 2020, the national development and Reform Commission has allocated a total of 4.5 billion yuan within the central budget to support the construction of emergency standby capacity for medical waste disposal, the improvement and expansion of medical waste disposal capacity, and the construction of medical waste collection and transportation capacity.

In the next step, the national development and Reform Commission will strengthen the supervision and inspection of the implementation of the investment plan, urge all localities to accelerate the construction of projects, and comprehensively improve the capacity of medical waste treatment and disposal in China. Prior to that, ten departments, including the National Health Commission, the Ministry of ecological environment, and the national development and Reform Commission, issued the work plan for comprehensive treatment of medical institutions' waste, which required strengthening the construction of centralized treatment facilities. By the end of 2020, each prefecture level city in China should build at least one standardized medical waste disposal facility.

"Medical waste disposal is not only very important for environmental protection, but also very important for avoiding the risk of fecal oral transmission and the possibility of secondary pollution of water sources," a doctor from a Grade-A hospital in Guangzhou told the 21st century economic report. When unexpected public health events occur, it also causes great pressure on the short-term treatment of medical waste, exposing the industry's short-term weakness to a certain extent. "

Re expansion of medical waste disposal market

During the outbreak of new crown pneumonia, the demand for medical waste disposal increased sharply, and the problems of medical waste disposal and construction were paid attention to.

Medical waste refers to the waste with direct or indirect infectivity, toxicity and other hazards generated by medical and health institutions in medical treatment, prevention, health care and other related activities. According to different characteristics, medical waste is generally divided into five types: infectious, pathological waste, injury waste, pharmaceutical waste and chemical waste, all of which are listed in the national hazardous waste list. As medical waste may contain a large number of pathogenic microorganisms and harmful chemicals, which will pose a potential threat to public health and environmental problems, so the correct treatment of medical waste is very important.

According to the medical waste management regulations, there are strict medical waste management standards.

The best feasible technologies for pollution prevention and control of medical waste treatment and disposal include incineration disposal technology and non incineration treatment technology. Incineration technology mainly includes pyrolysis incineration technology and rotary kiln incineration technology; non incineration treatment technology mainly includes high temperature steam treatment technology, chemical treatment technology and microwave treatment technology.

According to Zhao Qunying, director of the emergency office of the Ministry of ecology and environment, since the outbreak of the epidemic, 22 cities in China have been operating with medical waste treatment overload, and 28 cities have been operating at or near full capacity. With the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the gap of medical waste market appears, and the market is expected to usher in rapid expansion.

According to the requirements of the National Health Commission, the Ministry of ecological environment, the Ministry of housing and urban rural development and other ten departments to issue the "work plan for comprehensive treatment of medical waste", by the end of 2020, at least one centralized disposal facility meeting the operation requirements will be built in each city above prefecture level; by the end of June 2022, each county (city) will have built a medical waste collection, transportation and disposal system.

For a long time, the regional difference of medical waste disposal level is very obvious.

Incineration disposal technology is suitable for the centralized disposal of large and medium-sized medical waste, and has good adaptability to the disposal of various medical waste. Therefore, the treatment of medical waste in various regions is generally incineration. Taking Shanghai as an example, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of ecological environment has previously said that in order to meet the demand for medical waste disposal in Shanghai in the next 30 years, the incineration and disposal scale of medical waste of more than 100000 tons per year will be realized by the end of 2020.

Incineration disposal is to use high temperature heat treatment to oxidize and decompose organic components in medical waste, so as to realize harmless and reduction. The technology includes continuous pyrolysis and incineration technology. This technology is suitable for the disposal of infectious, traumatic, pathological, chemical and pharmaceutical medical wastes.

Keith Iverson, director of the international environmental technology center of the United Nations Environment Programme in Osaka, Japan, has publicly said that the assessment of waste generation rate data from all over the world shows that hospitals produce about 0.5 kg of waste per hospital bed per day. However, this figure and the basic composition of waste vary greatly depending on local conditions. For example, high-income countries produce much higher levels of waste and plastics, which usually account for more than half of all medical waste. Because of the variety of waste, there is no single best solution to the problem of medical waste.

In addition, the amount of medical waste produced in the region is usually in direct proportion to the level of medical development in the region, and the medical waste treatment industry has obvious regional typical characteristics. "It's both an advantage and a limitation for companies." Some industry insiders have analyzed and said: "regional monopoly is conducive to the formation of moat within a certain range of enterprises and stable and sustainable development; however, the problems of hazardous waste transportation, such as the limitation of trans provincial transportation, also mean that the business radius of enterprises is limited and the breakthrough is facing obstacles. Cross regional M & A is a feasible path for business development. "

According to the existing medical treatment facilities of large and medium-sized cities, some of them are unable to meet the demand of medical treatment in remote areas. However, before the introduction of competition mechanism in the medical waste disposal market, some local markets had monopoly and high fees, which led to the relative concentration of projects in some provinces and cities, while some provinces did not have the ability of centralized disposal of medical waste.

Industry competition has arrived

According to the statistics of the Ministry of ecology and environment, as of June 6, 2020, the national medical waste disposal capacity was 6245.4 tons / day, an increase of 1342.6 tons / day compared with 4902.8 tons / day before the epidemic. Since January 20, 447000 tons of medical waste have been disposed of nationwide.

At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held on February 21 this year, it was proposed to speed up the improvement of the collection and treatment facilities for medical waste and hazardous waste.

On April 26, the third draft of the law on the prevention and control of environmental pollution by solid waste (Revised Draft) was submitted to the 17th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation. According to Xu Hui, vice chairman of the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress, the third draft has strengthened the management of medical waste, especially in response to major infectious diseases. Among them, medical waste should be managed according to the national hazardous waste list.

"In the long run, the capacity gap in the treatment and disposal of medical waste can be completely solved through standardized management and increased facility construction." Zhao Qunying, director of the emergency office of the Ministry of ecological environment, said frankly.

This time, the national development and Reform Commission has issued an investment of 2.68 billion yuan within the central budget to support the construction of national capacity for medical waste disposal. With the national and policy support for the construction of medical waste, the medical waste disposal industry may be expanded again. At the same time, the market competition of medical waste disposal industry has accelerated again.

This year, A-share listed companies, including Dongjiang environmental protection, high energy environment, Hanlan environment, Runbang, Xuelang and Yongqing environmental protection, are speeding up the layout of medical waste disposal. For example, high energy environment participated in the construction of Wuhan Huoshen mountain and leishenshan hospital, and undertook the medical waste disposal and medical wastewater treatment project of leishenshan Hospital; edification environment participated in the temporary emergency disposal of medical waste in Wuhan, and assisted in participating in the treatment of part of medical waste in Xiehe Jiangnan hospital and leishenshan hospital through temporary medical waste disposal devices.

In addition, enterprises such as Yongqing environmental protection, Xuelang environment and Runbang shares are speeding up the "enclosure" through acquisition. In early February, Yongqing environmental protection acquired 51% equity of Changming environmental protection, which the company called "prospective layout of medical waste disposal business". It is reported that Changming environmental protection is the controlling shareholder of Zhuzhou medical waste centralized disposal Co., Ltd. The company has acquired the disposal field of waste medical in Changyue, and has the qualification of disposal of waste medical in Shanghai.

"More gaps in the medical waste industry are at the county and township levels, which are relatively scattered." Wang lizhang, senior partner of E20 environmental platform and executive director of the Research Institute, said frankly, "now the competition is very fierce. The characteristic of the environmental protection industry in the past two years is that the policy release is very fast. If the enterprises have not arranged ahead of time, it will be a little late to lay out again now. " (Editor: Bao Fangming)