Waste-to-energy solutions reduce landfills

As dawn breaks, garbage trucks start rolling into a waste-to-energy plant in Chongqing, the first of some 300 trucks that drop off their trash daily for it to be incinerated and the energy produced turned into electricity.

Waste-to-energy is just one example of the municipality's endeavor to create a "zero-waste city", converting garbage into energy through advanced technology, providing clean electricity to residents and reducing carbon emissions.

"In the past, Chongqing used landfills as a primary method for garbage disposal, which posed risks to land, groundwater and air quality. Now, all domestic solid waste is processed in an effective and environmentally friendly manner with its resources being reutilized to the maximum extent," said Liu Changfeng, general manager of Chongqing Sanfeng Baiguoyuan Environmental Energy, the operator of the facility.