Shanghai, China’s eastern metropolis and host of the 2010 World Expo, is stepping up efforts to cope with its production of garbage, set to increase from 16,000 tons to 20,000 tons a day by 2010.

Waste recyclable after sorting will account for 10 percent of the total by then and could be reused for paper and metal products.

“The remaining waste will be burned or biochemically processed to produce useful resources," said Tang Jiafu, an official from Shanghai's City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Bureau. "Only the residue will be buried, but in a more sanitary way, which will produce gas as well.”

The precise current percentage of recycled waste is unavailable but Tang said that it is "very low."

Chinese cities struggle with the volume of urban waste, as very little is recycled and tens of millions of farmers flock to cities in search of a better life.

Estimates show that by 2010 approximately 20 million people living in Shanghai will produce about 20,000 tons of garbage a day.

The biggest comprehensive waste processing factory began construction last month in Putuo District. Upon completion at the end of 2005, it is expected to consume 270,000 tons of garbage every year, and provide 41 million kilowatt hours of electricity to east China's power grid as well as 40,000 tons of nutritious soil. Another factory in Baoshan District capable of processing 500 tons garbage every day is also under construction.

By 2010, Shanghai will have about five comprehensive disposing factories, eight combustion sites and a modern dumping ground capable of handling the city's waste.

"A complete network of other relevant facilities, such as compressing, sorting and distribution sites, will also be brought online to link the huge processing system," Tang said.

Tang added that the past simple treatment of garbage has already caused pollution to the city's water and soil.

"Now the city produces some 16,000 tons of garbage every day, and 70 percent of it is simply buried, even after Shanghai's first processing factory in Pudong began operation last May," said Tang. "A dumping site in Pudong with a total area of 2.6 million square meters is almost full."

"More thought is needed for the exact processing measures we are to take," said Professor Tao Kanghua, an ecological expert and director of the Research Center on Urban Information of Shanghai Normal University. "The main composition of garbage will usually change every 10 years with the improvement of living conditions, like from coal ashes in the 1970s to plastic bags in the 1990s and packaging material after 2000.”

(China Daily October 18, 2004)