Once upon a time, the treatment of organic waste such as kitchen waste, livestock manure, and dead aquatic plants in the Erhai Lake Basin, a highland pearl, was a difficult problem for the local area. Some of the waste flowed into Erhai Lake, polluting the clear lake water... Nowadays, through continuous exploration and innovation, Dali Prefecture in Yunnan Province has established an organic waste collection, transportation, treatment, and resource utilization system in the Erhai Lake Basin, which not only effectively reduces pollutants entering the lake, but also turns the former "waste" into a "treasure". Recently, reporters saw several workers wearing green vests on the banks of the Xi'er River in the main urban area of Dali City, Dali Prefecture, salvaging weeds, dead fish, and white garbage on the water. The worker at the stern paddles, while the worker at the bow holds a salvage net to salvage. In about 20 minutes, the three salvage ships returned to the shore with a full load. Yang Hongshe, a worker salvaging on the ship, said that there are 12 workers in this area who can salvage about 2 tons of dead aquatic plants and other waste every day, all of which will be transported to Yunnan Shunfeng Erhai Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. for processing. Entering the Shunfeng Erhai Environmental Protection Company located in Dali Economic Development Zone, there are multiple treatment workshops on both sides of the roads in the factory area, including a public toilet feces treatment center, a livestock and poultry manure treatment center, a algae sludge and sediment treatment center, and a kitchen waste treatment center. From time to time, trucks loaded with various organic waste materials enter the workshops. Liu Fei, Executive Vice General Manager of Shunfeng Erhai Environmental Protection Company, said that the company has established 27 organic waste collection stations and multiple non fixed mobile collection points in 18 townships (streets) in the Erhai Lake Basin, and deployed 251 waste collection vehicles. Every day, the company collects and transports various types of organic waste such as animal manure, sewage treatment plant sludge, kitchen waste, as well as crop straw and dead aquatic plants in the Erhai Lake Basin, with a daily collection of nearly 2000 tons, achieving full coverage of the Erhai Lake Basin. The reporter saw at the kitchen waste treatment center that green box type small trucks loaded with kitchen waste were gradually driving into the workshop, slowly dumping the garbage into the pool. Workshop director Feng Jiankang said that the full load capacity of each vehicle is about 10 tons, and the kitchen waste mainly comes from hotels, restaurants, and canteens in the main urban area of Dali City and around Erhai Lake. The company has more than 20 such box type small trucks for transporting kitchen waste, with each truck pulling twice a day. On the screen of the company's digital intelligent management platform, the process of organic waste collection, transportation, treatment, and resource utilization is clear at a glance. At the same time, the screen also displays real-time statistics on the collection and treatment of organic waste in various counties and cities of Dali Prefecture, as well as the cumulative amount of sludge, slurry, and biogas generated after waste resource utilization. The organic waste entering the factory area is processed, treated, and utilized as a resource to become useful and valuable 'treasures' Zhong Shunhe, Chairman of Shunfeng Erhai Environmental Protection Company, said that after harmless treatment of organic waste, it can be processed into various types of organic fertilizers. The company has currently built four organic fertilizer production workshops. The reporter saw in one of the organic fertilizer production workshops that the automated production line is operating at full capacity, with bag picking, bagging, fertilizer loading, and sealing all automated operations. The robotic arm neatly stacks bags of fertilizer, and then workers drive forklifts to transport them to the storage warehouse for stacking. This workshop has three production lines, producing about 7000 tons of organic fertilizer per day Zi Jinxiong, Deputy Director of Shunfeng Erhai Environmental Protection Company, said that the company produces 800000 tons of organic fertilizer annually, most of which is sold in Yunnan Province, and some products are exported to multiple provinces such as Hebei, Shandong, Gansu, as well as Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. In addition, the company has built one large-scale biogas processing plant and one natural gas refueling station, producing over 30 million cubic meters of biogas products annually and deploying 200 biogas taxis locally. While achieving scientific treatment and resource utilization of organic waste in the Erhai Lake Basin, Dali Prefecture has also systematically carried out 9 "precision improvement actions" such as improving water quality of rivers entering the lake, controlling agricultural non-point source pollution, treating rural domestic sewage, and transforming and developing industries in the basin, comprehensively promoting high-level protection of Erhai Lake and high-quality development of the basin. In 2023, Erhai Lake will be included in the National Important Wetland List. Nowadays, the scenery of Erhai Lake is even more beautiful and charming, attracting tourists from all over the world. (New Society)