Waste a terrible thing to mind

The row over whether to burn Beijing's trash or continue to bulldoze it into landfills the size of small countries has smoldered for years and, despite all the trash-talking, we are nowhere near a resolution.

On one hand, incinerator fans say, for the cost of a match, we can end all of that environmental damage, groundwater pollution and save the wasted space devoted to stinky garbage dumps by simply reducing our refuse to ashes.

And on the other, incinerator foes say the toxins that would spew from those garbage burners would poison our atmosphere and give our grandchildren cancer, too high a price.