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★Mark us as a preferred sourceA decade ago, Chinese metropolises were threatened by a so-called “garbage siege,” with landfills overflowing with untreated waste. Today, however, skyscraper-sized mountains of trash are being rapidly eliminated, replaced by ecological parks and digital industrial zones. Instead of merely burying waste, the most populous region in the world is now focusing on resource and energy recovery. According to official data, by the end of 2025, over 78 percent of urban household waste was being disposed of in modern incinerators that exceed strict emission standards. Our comprehensive analysis reveals how China achieved in just ten years what took developed countries three decades.
The Era of the “Garbage Siege” and the Staggering Scale of Waste Generation
In the past, China’s explosively growing cities were literally surrounded by their own mountains of garbage. The scale of the problem is best illustrated by the statistics of the four “first-tier” metropolises—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. These cities each generate over 20,000 tons of household waste daily. Based on official 2025 data, if a single megacity’s daily waste were piled just one meter high, it would cover exactly 20 standard-sized football fields.
With such astonishing volume, traditional landfilling became unsustainable and a thing of the past. Today, none of these four megacities operates a landfill that accepts untreated garbage. The national trend also reflects this radical shift: over 80 percent of Chinese cities have already completed the remediation of old garbage mountains, where closing landfills and ecological restoration have become the mainstream.
Paying Off Past Debts: Megaprojects in Shenzhen and Beijing
In Shenzhen, located in the southern Guangdong province, a 110-meter-high mountain of trash—rivaling a 30-story skyscraper—once stood. This former Yulong landfill was the city’s primary household waste disposal site. Operating between 1983 and 1997, and closed in 2005, the facility contained approximately 2.55 million cubic meters of waste. Although it was on the city’s outskirts when it opened, drastic urban expansion means it is now surrounded by high-rise buildings.
The excavation and remediation of this landfill is China’s largest waste-mining project to date, officially beginning in 2024. During the operations, 6,000 tons of garbage are excavated daily. Light, combustible materials—such as plastics and rubber—are transported to nearby incinerators for power generation. The project, scheduled for completion by the end of this year (2026), is not merely about reversing environmental damage. The operation will free up about 300,000 square meters of highly valuable land, which will be transformed into a cutting-edge digital industrial cluster and a green ecological valley.
A similar transformation occurred in Beijing. The current site of the Beijing Garden Expo Park was previously one of the capital’s largest sources of windblown sand, filled with abandoned gravel pits and illegal dumping grounds. Over the course of about three years, the terrain was transformed by recycling millions of tons of construction waste, the sand pits were shaped into scenic tourist spots, and aquatic plants were introduced to naturally filter the waters, turning the area into an ecological park.
High Technology in the Smoke: Modern Incinerators and Power Generation
If waste is no longer buried, where does the daily garbage go? The answer is incineration, but not with the polluting, smoky technology known from the past. The vast majority of current Chinese household waste is burned using high-tech processes that generate not only electricity but also heat and even construction materials.
The scale of the paradigm shift is evident: while in 2010 China had only 119 household waste incinerators, treating a mere 20 percent of all waste (with landfilling dominating), today the situation has completely reversed. At that time, one of the biggest obstacles was the public’s fear of toxic smoke. Today, however, temperatures in the furnaces of modern incineration plants are constantly maintained above 850 degrees Celsius, ensuring the complete breakdown of hazardous dioxins. Trace amounts that might reform in the cooling flue gases are captured using activated carbon and bag filters, while heavy metals and acid gases are trapped by dedicated technological solutions.
At the incineration plant within the Shanghai Laogang waste management base, the entire process—from automatic unloading to fermentation, incineration, and emission monitoring—takes place largely without human intervention. The level of pollutants in the flue gas approaches zero, allowing the facility to exceed both national and stringent European Union (EU) environmental standards.
In the city of Foshan (Guangdong province), an eco-industrial park disposes of 4,500 tons of garbage daily. In addition to electricity, the facility produces high-temperature steam, which is delivered to nearby factories through an extensive pipeline network, directly replacing the use of fossil fuels in a cascading energy loop.
Economic Value from the Ashes and Future Strategy
During the process, experts strive to extract the very last drop of value from the waste. The bottom ash, which makes up about 20 percent of the residue, contains valuable materials such as iron, copper, aluminum, and even traces of gold and silver.
In the Fushan Circular Economy Industrial Park in Guangzhou—which processes 8,000 tons of household waste daily—the total of 600,000 tons of ash produced in 2025 was converted into eco-friendly brick materials used for road construction and buildings. However, this park is not just a strict industrial facility: one of the incinerator’s chimneys was transformed into a 120-meter-high observation tower. Classified as a national 3A-level tourist attraction with a garden-city atmosphere, visitors can enjoy the panoramic view while having coffee in the tower.
Based on official statistics, the advance is clear: by November 2025, incineration accounted for 78.1 percent of China’s urban household waste management capacity, representing a 19.2 percentage point jump compared to the end-of-2020 data. Today, China accounts for approximately 60 percent of global waste incineration capacity, far exceeding the combined total of Europe, the United States, and Japan.
According to the unanimous opinion of experts, the country has managed to accomplish in 10 years what once took developed countries 30 years. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), the waste management sector is expected to develop even further: the focus will shift entirely from safe but mere disposal to comprehensive resource recovery.
Source and Reference:
The article is entirely based on the official report published on the English-language state platform of Qiushi, the official theoretical journal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (as well as data from the state news agency Xinhua). Original state reference link: https://en.qstheory.cn/2026-06/05/c_1188392.htm