Ein minivan wird durch Berge von Müll auf der Straße in der bezirksfreien Stadt umgeben, Shenzhen, die südchinesische Provinz Guangdong, 20. November 2014. China
A minivan is surrounded by piles of garbage left on a road in Shiyan town, Shenzhen city, south China's Guangdong province, 20 November 2014. China has for a decade surpassed the United States as the world's largest generator of municipal solid waste, the stuff that goes into landfills and incinerators, according to a World Bank report. It alone accounts for 70 percent of the solid waste generated in East Asia. By 2030, the same report suggests, China will probably generate twice as much solid waste as the U.S. Of course, on a per capita basis, China and its relatively poor rural population still lag far behind Americans. But as China's middle class expands, the per capita numbers will grow, too. In January 2013, state news agency Xinhua estimated that Chinese throw away enough food annually to feed 200 million people; in 2012, state-owned China Daily estimated that 70 percent of Chinese solid waste is food. The growth of China's cities and shrinking of its arable acreage means that the country's landfilling days are coming to an end. Incinerators, for better or worse, will have to pick up the slack. China has committed to building more than 200 additional ones by 2015, more than doubling the installed base in just four years.
