The industrial heartland of southern Hebei presents a familiar scene, yet with a transformative twist. Trucks shuttle back and forth on the roads, their beds loaded not for open-air dumps but bound for smart production facilities, carrying dark coal gangue. Wuan City is redefining the value of this industrial byproduct.

On June 23, the first batch of production lines at Phase I of the coal gangue decarbonization project for producing eco-friendly wall and floor tiles, operated by Hebei Xinfeng Group (referred to as Xinfeng Group), officially commenced operations within the Wuan Xinfeng Circular Economy Industrial Park. The first batch of paving bricks from the project has rolled off the line. (Photo provided by the interviewed company)

Heaps of "black lumps" are being transformed through processes like high-temperature calcination, decarbonization, restructuring, and pressing into smooth, aesthetically pleasing green ecological paving bricks. These new building materials were fully pre-ordered by clients even before production was complete.

The Logic Behind Immediate Full Capacity

Why can a new project achieve full production capacity right from the start? How have industrial solid wastes, accumulated for years, turned from an "urban nuisance" into "sought-after raw materials"? The answer lies in Wuan City's meticulous calculations across three ledgers: the ecological ledger, the operational ledger, and the industrial ledger. Leveraging these "three accounts," Wuan is shedding its ecological burdens, seizing the green development track, and forging a new path for the transformation of a resource-based city.

Settling the Ecological Ledger: From Burden to Asset

Located on the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains, Wuan City is a major industrial hub in southern Hebei. For years, industrial and mining development supported the local economy but also left behind severe ecological issues. Vast quantities of coal gangue, steel slag, and tailings accumulated continuously with nowhere to go, with the comprehensive utilization rate of coal gangue below 30%, mostly just piled in the open or haphazardly transported away.

Guo Yanna, a frontline worker with over 20 years at Xinfeng Group, recalls the past vividly: "In the old days, surrounding villages faced flying ash on windy days and black wastewater flowing everywhere on rainy days, with crop yields declining year after year. These waste piles occupied land and caused pollution—a real ecological 'burden.'"

Today, solid waste is being utilized as a resource. Previously discarded coal gangue is transformed into usable industrial raw materials, unlocking new value. Entering the Wuan Xinfeng Circular Economy Industrial Park completely颠覆s the stereotypical image of a dirty, messy, and smelly waste site. The park features clean, flat roads, lush greenery on both sides, enclosed workshops with bright windows, and orderly automated equipment, operating efficiently with no dust, no wastewater, and overall cleanliness.

"As a key provincial construction project in Hebei, the coal gangue decarbonization project for eco-friendly tiles has planned 40 intelligent production lines. Once all are operational, its production scale will be among the global leaders for similar projects. It can consume 10 million tons of various solid wastes annually, produce 200 million square meters of green building materials, generate annual revenue of 15 billion yuan, and create jobs for 3,500 people," explained Song Junfeng, Deputy General Manager of Xinfeng Group, standing before the central control screen in the smart production workshop, with certainty and confidence.

This confidence stems from a clearly calculated ecological ledger. The project employs a company-developed, nationally patented suspended high-temperature decarbonization technology. Unlike traditional calcination, this technology allows for uniform suspended heating of materials, increasing heat transfer efficiency by 3 to 5 times, enabling fast and efficient decarbonization, reducing comprehensive energy consumption by over 20%, and significantly cutting exhaust emissions.

Simultaneously, the project utilizes an advanced domestic dry production process. Compared to traditional wet processes, this method operates in a fully enclosed system, requires no large amounts of water, truly saves water and electricity, produces no wastewater or exhaust emissions, and can further reduce energy consumption by over 30%. Once fully operational, the project will annually reduce the need for massive primary ore mining and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million tons.

Long-term hazards from solid waste piles and landfills—such as dust pollution, soil compaction, and groundwater leakage—are being eradicated at the source. Gangue hill storage sites are gradually being cleared, freeing up thousands of acres of land that can be converted into ecological green spaces or industrial development land. The ecological dilemma of "waste besieging the city" is gradually being transformed into the ecological foundation for high-quality urban and rural development.

Balancing the Operational Ledger: From Cost Center to Profit Center

Solid waste management was historically a pure cost for enterprises, with no return. Transportation, landfilling, land occupation, and environmental remediation—each required expenditure. The more waste piled up, the greater the losses. In Wuan, solid waste management now achieves cost reduction, revenue increase, and stable profitability. This shift from subtraction to addition represents a transformation from old to new models and a shrewdly calculated operational ledger.

"By fully replacing expensive traditional raw materials with solid wastes like coal gangue and steel slag, the company has directly reduced raw material procurement costs by nearly 30%," said Guo Jianqiang, Technical Director of Xinfeng Group. He added that while it used to cost money to have a ton of coal gangue hauled away, now a ton can produce 20 square meters of high-end stone-like building materials, with a comprehensive value exceeding a thousand yuan—a dramatic increase in the worth of waste.

To maximize the value of solid waste across the region, Xinfeng Group leverages its cement kiln co-processing platform to integrate steel plant slag, mine tailings, coal gangue, construction waste, municipal solid waste, medical waste, and hazardous waste into its circular economy system. In collaboration with institutions like Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology Beijing, and China Building Materials Academy Chengdu Design & Research Institute, the company formed a dedicated R&D team. Through反复调试原料配比 and optimizing production processes, they broke down industry technical barriers one by one, establishing a full-chain resource utilization model of "turning waste slag into building materials, using garbage for energy, and making hazardous waste harmless."

Now in Wuan, solid waste resources are classified and utilized differentially: coal gangue and steel slag are processed into high-end stone materials; construction waste becomes infrastructure aggregate. Relying on the cement kiln co-processing platform, municipal solid waste and hazardous waste undergo harmless treatment and resource recycling, ensuring all types of solid waste are put to full use.

The dozens of high-end green building materials developed and produced by the company using waste as raw material—such as eco-bricks resembling stone, permeable bricks, and low-carbon cementitious materials—are of higher quality yet lower price compared to traditional建材, making them highly competitive in the market. Having accumulated stable market reputation and industrial advantages, the company receives a continuous stream of orders, with products increasingly畅销 in southern Hebei and surrounding areas.

Solid waste disposal is no longer a matter of "input only, no output." The former "environmental burden" has become tangible "green wealth," achieving a win-win for both environmental and operational效益.

Calculating the Industrial Ledger: Forging a New Path for Development

For a long time, many resource-based cities have been stuck in the development dilemma where "pollution control is easy, but development is hard." Solid waste治理, in particular, faces the inescapable challenges of "end-of-pipe cleanup, ecological debt, and单一产业 structure." Since 2020, with the implementation of national "dual carbon" policies, Hebei Province has全面推进 steel industry ultra-low emission upgrades and pilot "waste-free city" construction. For Wuan City, with its deep industrial底蕴 and urgent need for transformation, this marked the正式 opening of a critical window for green development.

Simply shutting down enterprises or applying one-size-fits-all waste treatment might show short-term results but would ultimately harm livelihoods, employment, and the economy. Wuan took a different path by carefully calculating the industrial ledger, establishing a breakthrough strategy: build upon the local industrial foundation, target solid waste resource utilization, and rely on leading enterprises to forge a circular path of "using waste to treat waste, turning waste into treasure."

First, precise positioning to define the赛道. Treating bulk solid waste resource utilization as a lever for ecological治理 and industrial upgrading, the city专门编制 a plan for industrial circular economy development, charting a green development direction.

Second, precise services to solve problems. It introduced special support policies for solid waste utilization, prioritizing and guaranteeing support in funding, land use, and energy consumption factors;搭建 bridges for university-enterprise cooperation to help companies reduce R&D costs.

As a pioneer in the local circular economy field, Tian Haikui, Chairman of Xinfeng Group, has profound insight: "Simply clearing waste slag only solves the environmental problem; turning waste slag into an industry solves the development problem."

Within just a few years, Xinfeng Group has continuously extended its industrial chain,建立 a full-category solid waste disposal system where various waste materials are "fully utilized and增值 in tiers." The company has also spurred the协同 development of over a hundred local solid waste resource utilization enterprises, promoting the落地投产 of numerous固体废物技改 and resource utilization projects, forming an industrial格局 characterized by集群 development and synergistic efficiency gains.

Currently, Wuan City has innovatively implemented a new integrated urban-rural model for municipal solid waste treatment. It can annually处理 300,000 tons of municipal solid waste and 50,000 tons of municipal sludge, covering the entire population of over 800,000 in Wuan, achieving 100%无害化处置 and resource recycling of urban and rural生活垃圾. Various solid waste comprehensive disposal projects annually consume 20 million tons of industrial solid waste like slag, steel slag, and coal gangue, and 2 million tons of construction waste.

This not only achieves the goals of "reduction, resource化,无害化, and industrialization" but also eliminates environmental pollution caused by waste and garbage piles, significantly improving the living environment for local residents. The produced eco-bricks and permeable bricks are widely used in海绵 city construction, beautiful countryside initiatives, and road and landscaping projects, providing a stable supply of building materials for "waste-free city" development.

It is understood that Wuan's solid waste circular economy model has received national recognition, with related projects rated as "National Circular Economy Standardization Pilot Projects for Solid Waste Comprehensive Utilization." The cement kiln co-processing waste-free economic model has been selected as a national典型案例 for "waste-free enterprises."

The long-standing dilemma for resource-based cities of "prioritizing development or protecting the environment" has found a practical and feasible solution in Wuan. The three development ledgers have搭起 a complete良性循环 system of "waste generation—waste treatment—waste utilization": urban development generates waste, local enterprises消化 and transform it on-site, and the produced green building materials feed back into urban construction and benefit民生 development.

The core breakthrough in Wuan's construction of a circular industrial system lies in the realization that traditional industrial and mining cities cannot simply abandon mineral resources. Instead, they can leverage resource化 technologies to build new material industrial chains and再生 resource recycling industrial chains, forming organic links between industrial production, urban construction, and居民生活 across multiple fields, achieving the转换 of old and new growth drivers.

This exploration has开辟 a new green transformation path of "solid waste治理,循环利用,绿色增值," providing a replicable and推广able Wuan model for similar resource-based cities across the country.