Open debate

SUCCESSFUL MODEL: The photo shows a garbage incineration power plant in Tianjin, which started operation in 2005, burns 1,200 tons of domestic waste every day and generates 120 million kwh every year (XINHUA)

Thousands of residents in Panyu District have signed a petition opposing construction of a garbage incinerator in their neighborhood.

Zhao Zhangyuan, a retired research fellow at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, has consolidated his status as the leader of China's anti-incineration movement with a widely reported open letter on his own blog on January 29, 2010. In the lengthy document, Zhao questioned the credibility and management capacity of Beijing's garbage administrative authorities. He also claimed the problem of wastewater seeping through the ground and contaminating water supplies was prevalent in the city's garbage disposal sites.

Zhao's letter also accused officials and experts of taking bribes from interest groups such as foreign incinerator manufacturers to support pro-incineration policies and represent their interests.

Pro-incineration officials and scholars quickly refuted his criticism. In interviews with several media organizations, Wang Weiping of Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment said that Zhao was "a self-crowned fake expert" on garbage treatment and his opinions were not only groundless, but also misled the public. Wang said, among the numerous garbage treatment technologies, incineration was not the best, but still effective and safe for big cities, which needed to reserve precious land for other uses.

"Now some people equate trash burning with cancer-causing emissions. I can responsibly guarantee that incineration emissions today totally meet environmental safety standards," Wang said.

He said prejudice against incineration was justified before 1992 when technical limitations of incinerators led to the production of cancer-causing emissions, but later technological upgrades to incinerators reduced dioxin emissions to less than those required by safety standards.

To take better advantage of incineration technologies, Wang said, government needed to allay the public's health concerns and more importantly promulgate industrial standards to regulate practices of incineration plants. "Plants don't even appraise, train or certify their employees. Moreover, to maximize profits plants might cut expenses on necessary equipment, spare parts and materials, which could threaten operational safety. In summary, the greatest barrier to incineration is the lack of operational supervision," Wang told People's Daily.

Xu Haiyun, chief engineer of China Urban Construction Design and Research Institute, also supports the expansion of incineration for big cities like Beijing and Guangzhou. In a report in Nanfang Daily, arguing against people's concerns about dioxin generated during incineration, Xu quotes a German study, which concluded domestic waste incineration could lead to decomposition of two thirds of dioxin contained in burned waste and emission of only 1 percent of dioxin into the atmosphere.

Xu told Southern Weekend in February the garbage disposal crisis was first and foremost one of credibility. He said China's waste disposal sites, always misrepresented as zero-pollution in the media, in reality often polluted the surrounding environment.

Despite the problems faced by China's urban domestic garbage incineration, it was consistent with intrinsic requirements of environmental protection and energy conservation causes. "It can only develop healthily under effective public monitoring," Xu said.