IT'S DIFFERENT

Beijing To Turn Garbage Into Power … by Staff Writers … Beijing (AFP) May 21, 2007 … EXERPTED …

Beijing plans to convert 40 percent of its rubbish into energy via incineration, as part of plans to develop new power sources and deal with landfill problems, state press said Monday. Four incinerators to be built in the capital will have the capacity to burn up to 5,000 tonnes of garbage daily when completed in five years, the Beijing News reported.
The four new plants will have the capacity to generate 1,500 megawatts of electricity, about the energy equivalent of a modest-sized nuclear power plant.
The plan was tabled at an ongoing meeting of the city's Communist Party and comes as the capital is running out of areas to bury garbage with existing landfills reaching capacity, the paper said.
In five years, 40 percent of the capital's garbage will be burned, 30 percent buried and the rest will be treated and used to make fertiliser or other renewable products, it said.
Currently the city buries about 90 percent of its garbage in landfills, it said.
The garbage burners will also be equipped with clean technology to ensure that emissions meet state requirements, the paper added.

While incineration is not without its own set of issues to overcome honorably instituted it might be a potentially “green” answer to some environmental situations mankind has created.

One factor which appears to plague the topic of incineration is at what point in the process do you measure smoke stack emissions. For the most part those favoring incineration choose to take these measurements near the “eye of the fire” and are understandably resistant to measurements taken at the top of the smoke stack.
There is no doubt as reported in this article … “The garbage burners will also be equipped with clean technology to ensure that emissions meet state requirements, the paper added”… as this allows the fox to guard the hen house, just like they do in the United States. Corporate interests in cooperation with FDA and EPA set “standards” which are arbitrarily promulgated to permit the greatest number of “players” to engage in this practice. The health and welfare of mankind is not really a factor in their deliberations, as bottom line rule$