A distributive multi-phase waste management model for analyzing synergistic emission mitigation policies – A Chinese case study

Accelerated industrialization results in an irrational emission of multi-phase industrial wastes (IW) such as air/water pollutants and solid/hazardous wastes, making their synergistic management a major challenge. To address this issue, a distributive multi-phase waste management (DMWM) model is developed to facilitate comprehensive emission-reduction analysis in China. The DMWM model first clarifies the emission structure and interrelationships of the various sectors in the multi-waste and corresponding pollutant systems. The sectors with similar economic and environmental attributes could be clustered to facilitate the synergistic mitigation of IW. It is discovered that the highest emitting type of industrial waste in China is industrial solid waste (ISW). Chemical oxygen demand (COD), SO2 (SOG) and common industrial solid waste (CSW) are the pollutants contributing the most to emissions from Industrial wastewater (IWW), industrial waste gas (IWG), and ISW, which accounted for 92.4%, 39.13% and 98.74% of the corresponding IW emissions, respectively. Besides, some typical industries are identified for pollution mitigation, such as smelting and pressing of metals (SPM), production and distribution of electric power and heat (EH), chemical industries (CI) and service (OS). In addition, the overall industrial waste emissions from different sectors in China show clustering characteristics of four sectoral groups, which indicates the need for IW treatment for different sectoral groups. Therefore, it is expected that the results of this study will provide a scientific foundation for evaluating and formulating future industrial pollutant control policies. [Display omitted] •A distributive multi-phase waste management (DMWM) model is developed for China.•High-emission waste and high-impact pollutant types are identified.•The multi-level impacts and interactions of sectors are revealed.•The typical sector clusters and associated mitigation pathways are obtained.