Earlier this week, an article entitled, “Garbage Surrounds Beijing: One Photographer’s Reflection,” which showed illegal landfills surrounding the capital, circulated widely among netizens, receiving 130,000 page views and more than 700 comments. The photographs focused on the life of those who make their living burning garbage and managing the illegal landfills and the pollution resulting from uncontrolled trash incineration.
One professor at Zhongshan University’s Institute of Politics and Public Affairs Management estimates that 95% of government resources are used to build trash incineration plants, while only 5% goes toward the sorting and storage of trash. Experts in waste management also estimate that trash incineration could save up to 90% more land than landfills. Although Beijing was one of the pilot cities for trash sorting, furthermore, the rate of success has clearly not been high.
