China grappling with garbage woes; urban trash now encloses more than two-thirds of the nation’s cities, with a quarter of them having exhausted space for refuse landfills and dumping grounds
June 9, 2014 Leave a comment
China grappling with garbage woes
Li Shu-liang and Staff Reporter
2014-06-03
With accelerating urbanization in China, urban trash now encloses more than two-thirds of the nation’s cities, with a quarter of them having exhausted space for refuse landfills and dumping grounds, reports the China News Service.
At present, a total of 500 million square meters of urban land in China is occupied by dumps, which results in an economic loss of 30 billion yuan (US$4.76 billion) a year.
A World Bank report showed that China topped the United States in 2013 as the country with the highest output for solid waste globally, taking up 70% of the solid waste production in East Asia.
Waste production in Chinese cities touched 200 million tons in 2012 and has been estimated to jump to 260 million tons and 323 million tons by 2015 and 2020, respectively, at an expansion of 8% to 10% a year, according to experts.
In Beijing, which has a population of 20 million, garbage production is close to 10 million tons every year and is growing at a pace of nearly 10% a year, overburdening the capital city’s garbage disposers during the last few years.
Experts said that if China does not take immediate steps to solve the problem of waste disposal in the cities, urbanization will become a nightmare.
On the other hand, the severe garbage problem had spurred business opportunities for garbage incineration.
A Chinese environmental protection official noted that trash-burning power plants have sprung up to improve the environment in cities because of its benefits to society, the economy and the environment. The report further stated that incineration accounts for 20% of harmless garbage disposal in China and would appreciate to 10% in five years. Eighty percent of incineration plants have been built in the last five years.
However, even though the Chinese government is aware of the garbage problem and is leaning towards garbage incineration, local residents in a majority of cities strongly oppose the construction of waste incineration plants over concerns of generating toxic and harmful gases.
Big cities, such as Guangzhou, Beijing and Hangzhou have even staged protests over building waste incineration plants.
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