Chinese Cities See Sharp Rise in Rubbish DisposalThe disposal rate of rubbish for Chinese cities reached 63.4 percent in 1999, a stunning increase of over 2.3 percent in 1990, thanks to the introduction of advanced foreign technology and the government policy to put the industry under market law.This was learned at the international conference on disposal and recycling of solid wastes in urban areas, which was held in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province. According to official sources, China began disposing of urban garbage in the 1980s. By 1999, there were 696 waste treatment factories in Chinese cities, treating and disposing of 114 million tons of garbage. Beginning in 2000, the Ministry of Construction has selected a number of pilot cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Guilin to experiment with the assorted disposal of urban waste. But local experts said it is still a long way to go for China to resolve the problem of urban garbage. So far, 90 percent of urban waste is just buried. Chinese cities must levy fees on local people for garbage disposal in order to turn it into a profitable industry. In Guangzhou, local companies are beginning to participate in local projects of disposing of urban waste through public bidding. By now, 230 local firms have contracted a number of the projects. In the coming five years, Guangzhou plans to invest 2.4 billion yuan in this field, with 1.3 billion yuan expected to come from non-government investors. |
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