Capital to improve rubbish disposal
Beijing municipal officials have promised to build 15 facilities to handle an annual one million tonnes of rubbish.
The city of 13 million produces 4.2 million tonnes of refuse every year, 90 per cent of which is dumped in landfills, according to Beijing's first official report on the disposal problem in the city.
The municipal government has put aside 3.2 billion yuan in an effort to improve the situation before the 2008 Olympics. According to the report, Beijing generates 11,500 tonnes of household waste on average per day.
'The one million tonnes of garbage not appropriately disposed of mainly occurs outside of the urban areas of Beijing,' said Liang Guangsheng, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Management Committee, which issued the report.
It is in the rural areas and suburban townships that open-air dumping and burial is most common.
The government has targeted 73 illegal open-air dumps, pledging to eradicate them by 2005. These sites are in addition to countless smaller dumps, mainly located in Beijing's many construction sites.
Nie Yongfeng, of Tsinghua University, who is an expert in rubbish disposal and treatment, said the city's refuse disposal system had to be overhauled, especially outside of the city. 'It is more difficult to solve the garbage problem in the townships,' Professor Nie said, explaining that townships were responsible for footing the disposal bill.
At present, 89.6 per cent of Beijing's rubbish rests in landfills, 5.8 per cent is composted and 4.6 per cent is incinerated. By 2008 the committee hopes that 60 per cent of the capital's refuse will be incinerated, 20 per cent composted and 20 per cent sent to landfills.
