Large cities promote rapid economic growth, but at the same time generate a large amount of waste, which is putting the garbage disposal facilities in the outskirts of these cities under growing pressure.
New garbage disposal methods are being introduced in China these days to help realize the goal of achieving sustainable urban development and the reduction of traditional disposal methods such as landfills, which take up space and cause pollution.
A large garbage-fuelled power plant is expected to start construction this June in Beijing to ease the city's waste headache.
The power plant is designed to generate 136 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year by burning waste, when construction is finished in 2003. This will supply the energy requirements of 48,000 families annually, energy experts said.
Located in Chaoyang District, the plant is designed to incinerate more than 1,300 tons of garbage every day, officials with the district said.
Beijing generates more than 8,000 tons of residential garbage every day, according to statistics from the city's Urban Construction Management Department.
With China's rapid economic growth and continuing urbanization, garbage along with air and water pollution have become major factors threatening the environment and people's health.
China has about 700 cities. The per capita garbage production in Chinese cities is 440 kilograms per year. The number keeps increasing at a rate of 8 to 10 per cent annually which will bring the garbage generated by China's cities up to 264 million tons annually by 2010, according to statistics from the Ministry of Science and Technology.
(China Daily 04/04/2001)
