The vice mayor Huang Wei told those at the meeting that the government considers incineration to be the most efficient way to dispose of waste in the city which has 18 million inhabitants. ‘Can anybody provide a better solution than incineration?’ he said. ‘I've learned that incineration plants can be pollution-free. The public should not have too much fear over the method.’
Residents all over the city have voiced opinions and protested over planned or existing incineration facilities and fear that authorities are hiding environmental pollution from them. A legislator has said the current deadlock over incineration between authorities and the public is the result of a series of mistakes by the government.
‘The public protested over incineration not because they don't understand that such technologies are safe in western countries, but because they know that measures against pollution have been feeble in most places nationwide,’ said Wang Weiping, the vice chief engineer of the Beijing municipal commission of administration, supervising garbage disposal citywide.
‘Because certain administrations are not supervising their areas well, an incineration plant that meets environmental standards in construction may be a major pollutant source in operation.’.
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