The city of Ordos in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region recently launched an implementation plan to become a "zero-waste city" during their 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

Ordos was officially approved by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to become a "zero-waste city" on April 24 this year.

According to the plan, by 2025, the city's solid waste generation will be effectively controlled, the level of bulk industrial solid waste such as coal gangue and fly ash will be significantly improved, and the supporting system will be further upgraded.

The solid waste industry will become a new point of economic growth for the city, and the concept of "zero-waste" will be widely recognized and accepted by the local citizens.

By 2025, a number of key projects in Ordos will be optimized. All of the industrial solid waste storage sites will be completed or renovated and the comprehensive utilization rate of general industrial solid waste will grow to more than 57 percent.

During the same period, the number of coal gangue disposal sites in Ordos will be increased by 10, the comprehensive utilization rate of coal gangue in the city will exceed 55 percent, and three more zero-waste industrial parks will be built.

Ordos will also improve the comprehensive utilization rate of straw to become greater than 86 percent, and increase the comprehensive utilization rate of livestock and poultry manure to 95 percent.

Additionally, the classified collection and transportation capacity of household waste will exceed 1,500 metric tons per day, the coverage rate of the kitchen waste collection and transportation system in urban built-up areas will reach 100 percent, and the resource utilization rate of construction waste will reach 55 percent.

Ordos will implement 86 solid waste reduction and recycling projects. 44 of the 86 projects will deal with industrial solid waste, seven projects deal with agriculture, 20 projects deal with household waste and 15 projects deal with hazardous waste.

The total investment of these projects will exceed 30 billion yuan ($4.28 billion).