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With the recent establishment of a manufacturing base for well covers made from recycled waste, Chinese citizens no longer need to fear the risk of falling into open wells.Manholes, part of the draining system in China’s urban areas, are called “fatal traps” because their iron covers are often stolen for legal re-sale. Hundreds of people are reported killed or injured every year in the country after falling into these open holes.
The industrialization center in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, is the first of its kind in the country to introduce the technology of producing well covers made of coal ash and waste
plastic. The environment-friendly cover costs 10 to 20 percent less than the common iron cover and should not tempt thieves.
A test conducted by Beijing-based civil engineering institute revealed that the lid is able to bear as much as 42 tons in weight, much more than the internationally-accepted standard of 36 tons for lids made of cast iron.
Jiangsu Province in east China has lost nearly 60,000 covers of various drainage wells since 1998, and Jiaozuo, a medium-sized city in central China’s Henan Province, claimed to lose over 3,000 within six months in 2001. Most of the stolen iron covers were found lying in stations that reclaim waste materials. Some of them were sold for no more than one US dollar, despite being worth of over 40 US dollars.
Shanghai, China’s most prosperous city, has replaced all of its 22,000 iron covers with covers made of low-iron content aterial, but the cost has doubled or tripled. The adoption of the newly-developed well covers is expected to solve the current problems and will contribute to environment protection, experts believe.
China produced 6 million tons of waste plastics, 2 million tons of waste rubber products and 160 million tons of coal ash in 2000.
Production of the new well covers will not only make use of such polluting trash, but will also reduce production costs.
There are worries however that iron cover manufacturers will have to lay off more workers or even face closure if the low-cost ” green” covers are widely used in the future, a dilemma for the Chinese government
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