[Chinese Mainland] World Cleanup Day Global Main Event Lands in China for the First Time: Keqiao's Annual Reclaimed Water Utilization Exceeds 56 Million Cubic Meters, RMB 143 Million "Dual Carbon + Digital Intelligence" Upgrading Project Won

Key Highlights: 2026年9月19日 to 21日, the Global Main Event of World Cleanup Day, co-hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, and the People's Government of Zhejiang Province, was held in Shaoxing, marking its first-ever landing in China. As the "International Textile Capital," Keqiao District delivered hard data: the district's annual Reclaimed Water utilization volume exceeds 5600万 cubic meters, and the comprehensive utilization rate of general industrial solid waste exceeds 98%; during the same period, the 1 bid of the "Dual Carbon Driven · Digital-Intelligent Empowerment" Wastewater Treatment Upgrading Project of Shaoxing Keqiao Jiangbin Water Treatment Company was awarded at a bid price of 1.43亿 yuan, with a construction period of 580日 calendar days.

I. Main Event: A Conference About the Right to Define "Clean"

The Global Main Event of World Cleanup Day, co-hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, and the People's Government of Zhejiang Province, and organized by the Shaoxing Municipal People's Government, was held from 2026年9月19日 to 21日 at the Shaoxing International Convention and Exhibition Center. The Clean City Construction Achievements Exhibition and the Environmental Sanitation Expo were held concurrently.

This is the first time the event has landed in China. For the domestic environmental protection and sanitation industry, the landing of the main event itself is a signal: China's role in this track is shifting from participant to co-definer.

A judgment that gradually became clear at the conference is that today's "clean" is no longer simply sweeping floors and hauling garbage, but a new track connecting technological innovation, industrial transformation, and urban governance.

II. Three On-Site Samples of "Turning Waste into Resources"

The cases that repeatedly appeared in the exhibition halls and discussions all point to the same logic—"waste" that originally required spending money to treat can become a new resource when approached differently:

• Chemical recycling of waste textiles—through chemical recycling, they become polyester raw materials again and enter a new production chain
• Printing and Dyeing Wastewater reuse—the Industrial Wastewater generated by printing and dyeing enterprises, after treatment, **returns to the production process**, becoming a "**second water source**" in the textile industry's circular system
• Extraction of agricultural by-products—after recovery and extraction, the aril of Torreya grandis can be made into essential oils, aromatherapy, and other products

Among the three, Printing and Dyeing Wastewater reuse is most directly related to the water sector. Printing and dyeing is a typical high-water-consumption, high-discharge process, with complex wastewater composition, high color, and poor biodegradability, and has long been regarded as difficult-to-treat wastewater. Making it a stable "second water source" means the treatment goal has changed from "meeting discharge standards" to "meeting production water quality requirements," and both the technical threshold and the economic calculation must be recalculated.

III. Keqiao Data: 5600万 Cubic Meters of Reclaimed Water and 98% Solid Waste Utilization Rate

Keqiao District is the "International Textile Capital" and has long faced the contradiction between expanding industrial scale and resource and environmental constraints. Current public data show:

• Annual Reclaimed Water utilization volume exceeds 5600万 cubic meters
• The comprehensive utilization rate of general industrial solid waste exceeds 98%
• Jianxin Jiaren New Materials has built a **green recycled polyester production line with an annual output of 5万 tons**, and the project has cumulatively **recycled 40万 tons of waste textiles and produced 28.5万 tons of recycled products**, forming a full-chain system of "recycling—regeneration—intelligent manufacturing—recirculation"

What does 5600万 cubic meters mean? Taking a medium-sized water plant with a daily water supply of 10万 cubic meters as an example, it is equivalent to more than 1.5 times its annual water supply. For a district-level unit dominated by the textile printing and dyeing industry, Reclaimed Water utilization at this scale means that a considerable portion of industrial water use in the region no longer relies on fresh water intake.

IV. The 1.43亿 Yuan Upgrading Project: "Dual Carbon Driven · Digital-Intelligent Empowerment"

Concurrent with World Cleanup Day, Keqiao also landed a major investment in water infrastructure.

According to the public notice of winning bidders issued by 2026年9月30日, the winning bidder for the 1 bid of the "Dual Carbon Driven · Digital-Intelligent Empowerment" Wastewater Treatment Upgrading Project of Shaoxing Keqiao Jiangbin Water Treatment Company is Zhejiang Tiangong Construction Group Co., Ltd. (consortium member: China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corp., Ltd.), with a bid price of 142,999,433元 (approximately 1.43亿 yuan), a construction period of 580日 calendar days, and a public notice period from 2026年10月1日 to 10月8日.

The project name itself reveals two dimensions of the upgrading:

"Dual Carbon-Driven" — Wastewater treatment is a high-energy-consumption industry, with electricity consumption in the three major stages of aeration, lifting, and sludge treatment accounting for the bulk of operating costs. Under the dual carbon goals, upgrading standards is no longer judged solely by effluent quality, but also by carbon emissions per unit of water volume. This means process selection will shift toward low-energy-consumption routes, while energy synergy measures such as biogas recovery, photovoltaics, and sewage-source heat pumps will become standard items in upgrading solutions.

"Digital and Intelligent Empowerment" — If the effluent standard after upgrading is raised by one grade, manual experience-based adjustment is no longer sufficient. Precision aeration, intelligent dosing, and feedforward control based on influent water quality prediction are necessary conditions for transforming "standard upgrading" from engineering investment into long-term stable compliance capability.

580日 calendar days of construction period also indicate that this is not a simple equipment replacement, but a comprehensive project involving structural modification and system reconstruction.

V. The Keqiao Logic: Not Finding Scenarios After Solutions

The most thought-provoking aspect of the Keqiao case is that its technology evolution path is reversed.

The common green transformation narrative is: first develop a green solution, then find application scenarios. Keqiao's path, however, is when industrial development encounters resource and environmental constraints, turning former costs back into resources through technological innovation — printing and dyeing wastewater is a cost, but when made into a second water source, it becomes an asset; waste fabric is a cost, but when made into recycled polyester raw material, it becomes an asset.

The value of this path lies in the fact that its driving force is endogenous and economically self-sustaining, rather than relying on subsidies. When "clean" is no longer just a cost but begins to become new productivity, transformation becomes sustainable.

VI. Technology Going Global: From Chinese Cities to Other Cities

Another issue repeatedly discussed at the conference was: how can a set of technologies and solutions proven in a Chinese city truly enter another city or another country?

Shaoxing enterprise Dechuang Environmental Protection provides an observation sample. In recent years, the company has focused on markets such as India, Indonesia, and South Korea, with business covering flue gas treatment equipment and overseas engineering general contracting; its Indonesia Guangqing Nickel SCR Denitrification, Wet Desulfurization and Dust Removal System Project was selected as a typical case of international cooperation by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, providing Chinese technical solutions for local industrial pollution control.

This case shows that the going-global of China's environmental protection technology has upgraded from "equipment export" to "engineering general contracting + operation capability export." But the real difficulty lies in localization — water quality characteristics, discharge standards, and operation and maintenance manpower structures vary greatly across countries, and directly transplanting domestically proven solutions often fails to adapt.

VII. Three Insights for the Industry

• "Second water source" must be economically viable — The competitiveness of reclaimed water reuse ultimately comes down to its price comparison relationship with fresh water; meeting water quality standards is only an entry ticket, while stable supply and pipeline network support are the moat
• Standard upgrading must be designed in sync with carbon reduction — Simply upgrading standards will drive up energy consumption and carbon emissions; "dual carbon-driven" requires process selection to simultaneously optimize the two objective functions of water quality and energy consumption
• Digital and intelligentization is a necessary complement to standard upgrading — Stricter discharge standards mean smaller operational error tolerance; intelligent control has changed from a "quality improvement and efficiency enhancement option" to a "rigid necessity for compliance assurance"

From "treating waste" to "operating resources," from "introducing technology" to "exporting solutions," this home-ground event in Shaoxing presented not only an exhibition of achievements, but also a clear path for industrial upgrading.

About TIANYI TECH

Hong Kong TIANYI Limited focuses on industrial water treatment and water resource reuse. Centered on three core products — Industrial Wastewater Treatment AI Agent, Industrial Water Reuse Optimization System, and Industrial Water System Digital Twin — the company provides enterprises with full-chain services from water quality diagnosis and process optimization to intelligent operations, helping customers transform wastewater treatment costs into operable water resource assets.

Contact us: +852 66162262 | info@tianyitech.hk