TELLING GREEN LIFE: Children promote garbage sorting in a Shanghai community on September 13 (LIU YING)

"Twenty-nine percent of cities in China lack treatment facilities for household garbage," said Zhou Shengxian, Minister of Environmental Protection, at a bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on October 25.

But the CAEPI said, even the alarming figures cited by Zhou might be an underestimate as they didn't take into account counties and towns, which are typically not well-equipped with treatment facilities.

The picture will be even bleaker in 2015 when about one third of China's existing landfills will reach their capacity, according to the China International Engineering Consulting Corp.

According to the Oriental Morning Post, based on the current treatment capabilities of Shanghai, 11,700 tons of garbage cannot be treated every day by 2020.

"In Guangzhou, the amount of garbage produced already exceeds the treatment capacity of existing landfills and incinerators, posing a great threat to the health of local residents," said Li Tinggui, Director of the Guangzhou Commission of Urban Management.

It is estimated that China loses as much as 30 billion yuan ($4.73 billion) as the result of poor waste management each year.

In order to enhance the country's urban garbage treatment, the State Council held two executive meetings, respectively in March and April this year, specifying the need for the establishment of an effective garbage management system.

Steps would be taken to ensure that China possesses the technology to treat 80 percent of the garbage collected from city households by 2015 and 100 percent by 2030, said the State Council.

Local governments are required to set the prices they charge for the treatment of urban garbage by taking into account local average incomes and economic circumstances.

"At present, both citizens and businesses spend very little on garbage treatment," said Xie Xinyuan, a staff with the Research and Investigation Department of Friends of Nature, a nongovernmental environmental organization in Beijing.

"For instance, in Beijing, every household pays just 3 yuan ($0.44) a month, which is not enough to support the whole process of garbage separation and treatment," he said. "The charges should vary according to the amount of garbage to be treated. People will then have a reason to reduce the amount of garbage they produce."

As part of its long-term strategy to deal with the waste issue, China will work to reduce the production of household garbage by encouraging the use of gas and solar energy. It will ask the public to separate garbage into categories, making it easier to recycle. And it will discourage the use of disposable items and excessive amounts of packaging.

The State Council has also pledged policy measures to support the development of domestic garbage treatment technology and equipment. Steps will also be taken to strengthen the training given to sanitation workers.

Investment in the urban waste disposal sector will amount to 180 billion yuan ($26.35 billion) in 2011-15, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

More efforts will be made to add to the current number of treatment plants and tighten the monitoring of the construction and operation of such plants.

Burning waste

Before 2005, landfills were seen as the greenest of the available choices in China. But since 2006, trash-burning power plants have been billed as more environmentally friendly.