Beijing has begun building a new garbage treatment plant that is
designed to generate 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a
year out of methane.
The plant, covering 23,460 square meters in Taihu town in the
Tongzhou District on the city's eastern outskirts, will become
operational at the end of next year, said sources with Beijing
Construction Engineering Group, the prime contractor for the
project.
Designed to be the city's largest garbage treatment center, the
plant will dispose of 650 tons of urban waste daily, including 200
tons of kitchen waste from the downtown districts of Chongwen and
Chaoyang.
The 184-million-yuan (US$ 23 million) project will produce 22
million cubic meters of methane gas annually to fuel four power
generators installed at the facility, said Liang Guangsheng,
chairman of Beijing Urban Environment and Hygiene Group.
Environment workers around the globe are seeking ways to convert
urban waste into energy resources and experts say a ton of kitchen
waste produces around 100 cubic meters of gas fuel.
Effective central disposal of kitchen waste would also prevent
dealers from illegally bringing contaminated food and vegetable oil
back to the dinner table, Liang said. The plant would also produce
organic fertilizer for farmers and forestry workers, he added.
The plant will have a waste classification unit that separates
garbage for incineration from other waste to minimize air
pollution. It will also use state-of-the-art technologies to
prevent waste being attacked by anaerobic bacteria that produce
offensive odors, said a statement from Beijing Construction
Engineering Group.
The new facility is one of the major environment protection
projects the Beijing municipal government announced in 2002 in an
effort to improve the city's environment for the 2008 Olympic
Games.
Beijing has promised to build two more urban garbage disposal
plants and 12 sewage treatment centers ahead of the event. The city
will cremate 40 percent of its urban garbage, recycle 30 percent
and bury the remaining 30 percent by 2008, according to Beijing
Municipal Administrative Committee.
At present, 70 percent of China's urban waste is stockpiled,
about 20 percent cremated and 10 percent recycled.
A 2005 satellite survey found more than 7,000 garbage heaps in
the suburbs of Beijing, each covering at least 50 square
meters.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of China's 668 cities are surrounded by
garbage that often ends up stockpiling, taking up farmland and
emitting foul odors.
(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2006)