China's urban areas will generate the maximum amount of garbage
its cities can handle in another 13 years and pose an even greater
threat to the environment.
China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and
Development, under the country's top environmental administration,
has warned that the garbage pile-up in 2020 would reach 400 million
tons. That’s the volume generated by the entire world in 1997.
The Status and Trend of Solid Waste in China, released by the
council recently, estimates that about 860 million people would be
living in the country's cities by 2020. This would place more
pressure on the already overburdened urban waste disposal system.
There’s no data on garbage generation in rural areas. But the
report warns that the waste treatment problem even in these areas
is very serious and likely to worsen.
Currently an average urban resident generates 440 kilograms of
waste a year with 52 big and medium cities (with a population of
over 500,000) accounting for 60 percent of the country's total
garbage.
Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang, capital of northeast China's
Liaoning Province, are three biggest waste producers. About 70
percent of urban waste is disposed of in landfills and the rest
goes into making fertilizer.
But the flip side is that only half of it can be treated
harmlessly, the report says. And the country's traditional way of
dumping waste hasn’t only wasted precious resources but also
polluted the environment.
If waste generation reaches such alarming levels more toxic
elements like ammonia and sulphur would be released into the air
with pathogenic micro-organisms, heavy metals and organic
pollutants contaminating surface and underground water.
Garbage will occupy large tracts of land. In fact waste has
already rendered 50,000 hectares of land around cities useless.
Dumping could cause more explosions such as those reported from
more than 20 cities. Microorganisms from urban household waste
could reach 30 percent and landfills would produce a larger volume
of methane.
The report urges the authorities to introduce more harmless
waste treatment measures. Garbage classification needs to be
promoted -- from trash can designs and public education to making
preferential policies and encouraging businesses.
(China Daily January 9, 2007)
