Study On The Economic Incentive Policy For Forestland Utilization Of Sludge Products

Municipal wastewater treatment results to the production of large quantities of sewage sludge,which is of high environmental risks.Its final disposal has become a serious challenge for sewage treatment industry in China.Forestland application is an effective way of sludge disposal,however,it has not been widely used in China due to the lack of corresponding policies.With the improvement of sustainable development concept and market economy,environmental economic policy has gradually become a necessary means of administrative intervention for government to solve environmental problems.It is urgent to study the limited factors for forestland application of sludge and establish targeted economic incentive policies.Via data survey,between 1984 and 2018,there were 68 normative documents related to sludge treatment or disposal to be published by State Council,Ministry of Finance,Ministry of Ecological Environment,Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development,and National Development and Reform Commission.In order to identify the dominant factor of limiting forestland application of sludge and give the corresponding countermeasures,the 68 normative documents were divided into three categories,including policy guidelines,standards and technology,and financial support.The results indicated that there is a serious lack of some scientific documents for forestland application of sludge(i.e.documents of engineering technical guidelines,the ecological environment risk assessment and management system,economic development polices).Therefore,it was urged to 1)make relevant technical standards and technical guidelines of sludge forestland application;2)establish the complete ecological environment risk assessment system and multi-sectoral coordination management system;and 3)establish the complete policy system of sludge forestland application industry,including tax policies and price subsides.Based on characteristics of forestland application of sludge in market economy and the requirements of corresponding policies in China,the fee for the treatment and disposal of sludge and its price subsidy were established.Furthermore,the Computable General Equilibrium model(CGE)and consumer utility model were established to calculate standard of sludge treatment and disposal fee and price subsidy of sludge forestland application.In this study,the CGE model to formulate the standard of sludge treatment and disposal fees was built,and the description for production and consumption amount in economic system was established,and the implementation effect of fees of sludge treatment and disposal was assessed.The results reveal that the level of social welfare will get to the peak value,when the fees of sludge treatment and disposal is 1.5 times as much as its cost.In addition,the negative influence of fees to the economic will be the minimum value within limits of 0.41%,Using the consumer utility model,the calculation method of price subsidy standard for sludge forestland application in China were established.The target of subsidy policy is the producers of sludge products which can be applied to forestland.