It's war as Beijing fires on garbage
Source: Agencies |
April 24, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BEIJING is waging war against the stench of its growing rubbish tips, deploying more than 100 cannons to blast deodorant into the capital's landfills as warmer weather causes more garbage to rot.
The cannons were invented by employees at the Gao'antun Garbage Landfill Plant, in Beijing's suburbs, after local officials apologized for the foul smell and promised to mitigate the problem.
Other devices such as odor-eating sheets were also brought in, along with a machine that extracts the foul-smelling gases and uses them to generate electricity.
"By employing these measures, and at the same time we have other measures we carry out to control the bad smell, we reduced the pollution at this landfill to the lowest level," said Zhang Quanhong, section chief of the Beijing Chaoyang District Garbage Disposal Center at the Gao'antun Landfill.
Gao'antun is just one of many sites struggling to process the mountains of rubbish produced in Beijing.
The capital's 17.55 million residents produce 18,400 tons of household garbage daily, 90 percent of which is dumped in 13 landfills dispersed around the municipality, according to Xinhua news agency.
The cannons, officially termed "high pressure long-range deodorant sprays," blast a liquid created from plant extract onto arriving waste.
The biological compound neutralizes the smell, its creators say, and the fragrance-covered rubbish is then buried under odor eating covering sheets and more deodorant is sprayed on top.
But not everyone is impressed. Residents of a housing compound near the dump say they have yet to see a result.
"Whenever the bad smell comes we are all coughing. At night we all wake up coughing," said resident Geng Haiou.
"Even when you are sleeping soundly, you can wake up coughing. Everyone opens their windows in the summer and there is that smell."
Experts have also expressed doubts over the scheme.
"The cannons are stench-neutralizing tools that should be used under special circumstances," said Nie Yongfeng, professor of Environmental and Engineering Sciences at Tsinghua University.
"But we cannot keep blasting all day long. We do not have that many cannons."
The cannons were invented by employees at the Gao'antun Garbage Landfill Plant, in Beijing's suburbs, after local officials apologized for the foul smell and promised to mitigate the problem.
Other devices such as odor-eating sheets were also brought in, along with a machine that extracts the foul-smelling gases and uses them to generate electricity.
"By employing these measures, and at the same time we have other measures we carry out to control the bad smell, we reduced the pollution at this landfill to the lowest level," said Zhang Quanhong, section chief of the Beijing Chaoyang District Garbage Disposal Center at the Gao'antun Landfill.
Gao'antun is just one of many sites struggling to process the mountains of rubbish produced in Beijing.
The capital's 17.55 million residents produce 18,400 tons of household garbage daily, 90 percent of which is dumped in 13 landfills dispersed around the municipality, according to Xinhua news agency.
The cannons, officially termed "high pressure long-range deodorant sprays," blast a liquid created from plant extract onto arriving waste.
The biological compound neutralizes the smell, its creators say, and the fragrance-covered rubbish is then buried under odor eating covering sheets and more deodorant is sprayed on top.
But not everyone is impressed. Residents of a housing compound near the dump say they have yet to see a result.
"Whenever the bad smell comes we are all coughing. At night we all wake up coughing," said resident Geng Haiou.
"Even when you are sleeping soundly, you can wake up coughing. Everyone opens their windows in the summer and there is that smell."
Experts have also expressed doubts over the scheme.
"The cannons are stench-neutralizing tools that should be used under special circumstances," said Nie Yongfeng, professor of Environmental and Engineering Sciences at Tsinghua University.
"But we cannot keep blasting all day long. We do not have that many cannons."
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