Experts forecast the Beijing Olympics will create more than 10,000 tons of garbage. Living up to the Green Olympics tag will depend on efficient waste disposal.
Beijing promised that by 2008 its waste management system would be able to safely dispose of all the city's garbage. 50 percent will be collected in categories and thirty percent will be recycled. All garbage generated by the Games themselves will be collected in categories and 50 percent will be recycled.
However, the total amount of garbage generated by the 17-day Games is equal to just one day's average for Beijing as a whole. And China handled an estimated 148 million tons of household garbage in 2006. Two thirds of China's cities are completely encircled by rubbish dumps.
The public have a more pressing thought: they hope the improvements introduced for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will last longer than 17 days.
