“Not Enough Waste to Burn”: A Dangerous False Premise

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Since early June, a video titled “From Waste Besieging the Cities to Not Enough Waste to Burn: China’s Speed Has Left the West Baffled” has gone viral online. Tossing unsightly rubbish into a furnace and burning it away, then turning the energy released into electricity – many people have enthusiastically hailed this ‘perfect’ technological solution.

But after hearing that ‘incineration plants in Zhejiang and Shanghai are going to other provinces and cities to grab waste to burn’, people began to exclaim: ‘This news really lets me use excessively packaged products without guilt – before, I was weighed down by a sense of guilt.’ Some even voiced topsy-turvy notions such as ‘it’s time we called on everyone to throw away more waste’ or ‘forget waste sorting – just send it all straight to the incinerators’.

Given that the misleading impact of this video continues to grow and spread, this episode of the podcast invites two seasoned experts from the fields of waste governance and environmental public welfare to discuss what ‘not enough waste to burn’ really means:

  • Is there really not enough waste to burn now? Why can’t this question be answered simply with ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
  • The video quotes Academician Du Xiangwan’s statement that ‘waste is a mountain of gold and silver placed in the wrong location’. What is the true meaning behind these words? What should be the foremost principle of waste management? Why should incineration be the very last step in waste treatment?
  • Can current waste incineration technology truly prevent the formation of dioxin, as well as other toxic emissions and atmospheric pollutants, during actual treatment processes?
  • Can waste incineration replace waste sorting? Why does efficient incineration actually depend on waste sorting?
  • Reducing waste at the source is both caring for the planet and caring for yourself. Much single-use plastic waste comes from food packaging – do you truly understand the harm that microplastics and plastic additives pose to the human body?
  • What is the relationship between mass waste generation and our consumer culture? Who should bear responsibility for reducing waste production – consumers or businesses? Why might waste incineration actually hinder society’s efforts to reduce waste and promote recycling?

G/u/e/s/t/s

Mao Da

PhD in environmental history; Chairperson of the Shenzhen Zero Waste Environmental Public Welfare Development Centre and initiator of the ‘Toxic-Free Pioneers’ campaign. For twenty years, he has been involved in solid waste and environmental health projects with several environmental organisations. His current work focuses on the sound management of chemicals, the greening of e-commerce, tackling plastic waste pollution, and the practical promotion of the zero waste philosophy.

 

 

 

Sun Jinghua

Nature name ‘Lianpeng’; Waste Reduction Programme Director at Friends of Nature and editor of the popular science book The Magic Book of Waste. For many years, she has been deeply engaged in education and public outreach on waste reduction and sorting, zero-waste schools, and related fields.

 

 

 

Yuyang

Foodthink editor, currently thinking about the toxic relationship between plastics and humans.

 

 

 

 

H/O/S/T/S

Tianle

Convener of the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market and founding editor of Foodthink.

 

 

 

 

T/i/m/e/l/i/n/e

01:00 After years of advocating for waste reduction and waste sorting, how did it feel to see that viral clip about “not enough waste to burn”?

07:01  Waste incineration gives people a cathartic thrill, but it also reflects an impatient attitude towards waste

08:51  Why is incineration the last resort in waste management?

14:21  With real-time monitoring in place, can incinerators completely prevent the formation of dioxin?

18:09  Why has China built so many waste incineration plants?

20:33  Glass bottles that incinerators cannot burn – can they still be collected for recycling by manufacturers, the way they used to when we were children?

33:33  The ‘phthalate plasticizer‘ in plastic packaging is equivalent to a type of artificial oestrogen

37:44  When ordering takeaway, the order clearly states “no single-use cutlery needed”, so why do sellers still insist on including it?

49:55  Excess incineration capacity has lowered the economic cost of waste treatment, but the invisible social cost is borne by each of us

55:40  What creative ideas could encourage businesses to reduce or recycle single-use plastic packaging?

59:45  How can we connect waste reduction and recycling with our own daily lives?

Waste has become a problem China must confront and tackle on its path to modernisation and urbanisation. The shock and fear once brought by ‘Waste Besieging the Cities’ drove people to hope for a solution that could address the waste problem quickly and efficiently. Image source: still from the documentary Waste Besieging the Cities
Vast quantities of waste casually discarded by people scatter across mountains and rivers, and can also travel up the food chain, returning to the human table and ultimately entering our bodies. Image source: Mao Da
Priority order of waste management methods. Image source: Mao Da
Distribution of waste-to-energy incineration plants across selected regions of China. According to relevant data, as of 2023 China had built over 1,000 waste-to-energy incineration plants with 2,172 incinerators and an incineration capacity of approximately 1.11 million tonnes per day. This expansion has made China’s waste incineration throughput far exceed the combined total of the United States, Japan and Europe. Image source: Public Platform for Automated Monitoring Data of Municipal Waste-to-Energy Incineration Plants
Pollutants that may result from waste incineration. Image source: A World Without Incineration
Takeaway food waste, seen everywhere in everyday life. Image source: Foodthink
A wide variety of fruit and vegetables in excessive plastic packaging, as commonly seen in fresh-food supermarkets. Image source: Foodthink
A supermarket collecting shopping bags voluntarily donated by customers for others to take for free. Image source: Wu Xiaowai
To encourage reducing the use of single-use plastic packaging, the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market has set up a dedicated refill section where customers bring their own containers. Image source: Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market
The “Slow Post” campaign aims to create a circular platform where second-hand bags can flow freely among people. Image source: Free U Nature

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Podcast music: Ba Nong

Produced by: Xiao Putao

Planning: Tianle

Editing: Yuyang

Contact email: xiaojing@foodthink.cn

Published by Foodthink