Efforts Urged to Eliminate Garbage Yards Surrounding 200 Cities

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 05, 2002

Efforts Urged to Eliminate Garbage Yards Surrounding 200 Cities

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Garbage has become a scourge for Chinese cities as 200-plus cities now have been surrounded by garbage yards, according to a member of the National Committee of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body.

Zhu Zhaoliang said in a proposal submitted at the annual CPPCC session: "We must try our best to solve this problem."

He said that the amount of urban garbage has been growing substantially in recent years in the wake of faster urbanization and the rapid increase in the urban population.

Statistics show that garbage produced by all Chinese cities amounts to 150 million tons a year, increasing at an average annual rate of nine percent.

The amount of untreated garbage across the country has added up seven billion tons.

Zhu said, "Technically speaking, there is no problem of garbage's harmless treatment. The major problem is insufficient funding input."

According to Zhu, garbage treatment facilities require huge investment costs and operating costs, but government appropriations are very limited.

He proposed that the garbage treatment market should be open to foreign investors, that garbage treatment fees should be slightly higher than treatment costs.

"In this way we can ensure the normal operation of the facilities and take in all kinds of social funds for urban garbage treatment," he said.

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