This Post Stinks, But Not as Bad as Beijing’s Landfill Problem

Environmental news flash:
The solution to stinking landfills is under your arms.

As you might imagine in a city with a population of 17 million people who are developing bad Western fast food habits the issue of “where do I put my burger bag” is a problem. If it were just a burger bag a piece it may not be an issue but Beijing-ians are tossing out 18,400 tons of waste every day which is 7000 tons more than the landfills can handle.

So to prevent the Toxic Avenger from taking over the city, as reported by the Guardian.co.uk, “Beijing is to install 100 deodorant guns at a stinking landfill site on the edge of the city in a bid to dampen complaints about the capital’s rubbish crisis.”

So a giant can of “let’s look the other way and hope the problem goes away” is going to be sprayed over the landfill while the other 200+ legal and illegal dumping sites around Beijing are bursting at the seams. Sounds like a plan.

Less than 4% of Beijing’s trash is recycled (compared to a substantially better, but still pretty pathetic 35% in the UK and US) and 2% is burned, but the rest is dumped and buried with the hopes that Mother Earth likes stinky socks and broken laptops for lunch.

The second faze of the plan was to increase the incineration rate to 40% by building 82 incinerators between 2006 and 2010 which as you can imagine has had a little less than agreeable public support – a close second to “I don’t want no stinkin’ landfill in my backyard” is “I don’t want no toxic waste incinerator in my backyard.” With the dangers associated with burning the toxic chemicals in plastics and other waste materials the people of Beijing have good reason to protest.

So what is a good tirade without a solution? About as useful as a giant deodorant stick gun loaded with questionable “its better for you than the alternative” aerosol. Maybe they should load up those deodorant guns and shoot the trash to the sun.

Ok, my tirade is over – I’m going to do my part to save the planet and go fish a rubber ball out of the pond I’ve looked at every day for the past week, but did nothing about. And if I get lucky I’ll find a plastic bag or two that I can send to the landfill where it belongs…