The right way to deal with garbage is to sort and recycle, not burn it, he argued.

Residential construction in once-rural Panyu district took off in 2001. Guangzhou began looking for an incinerator site in 2003.

Hearing in September 2009 that the village of Huijiang would be that site, Panyu residents began protesting, leading to the eventual suspension of the project.

More than 1,000 people took to the streets of Guangzhou in November 2009 to protest the sudden building of an incinerator near their homes.

"I know the difficulty our government was confronted by, and I also don't oppose garbage incineration," Zhao Feiyan, a resident living near to Huijiang village, was quoted as saying by People's Daily.

"However, I won't agree with an incinerator plant being built near my house," Zhou said.