Society

Beijing to be more selective on garbage burner sites

By Wu Jiao and Zuo Likun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-05 14:43
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The Beijing municipal government will take heed over future garbage burners' site selections after residents expressed environmental concerns, Huang Yan, director of Beijing's Municipal Committee of Urban Planning, said on the sidelines of a national congress Friday.

As for those incinerators under construction, the municipal government will further deliberate with nearby residents on how to minimize the environmental impacts, the senior engineer said.

A government delegation, sent to Japan last month in a bid to learn more about the advanced technology of garbage burning, has just returned, she added.

The remarks by Huang, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, is the latest assurance from the municipal government about the environment controversy surrounding the Asuwei garbage incinerator in northwest Beijing's Changping district.

The Asuwei incinerator, announced last July, was originally set to be put into use by 2015.

Beijing is almost up to its neck in garbage, with its landfill capacity at 60 percent full, which will be maxed out in four years, according to municipal statistics. The city plans to build nine garbage incinerators by 2015.