In August 2009, Beijing authorities revealed a plan to build a $121-million garbage incineration plant near Xiaotangshan in suburban Changping District, but local residents responded by staging protests.

Huang Xiaoshan, a lawyer-turned-environmentalist who owns a villa in the Xiaotangshan resort area, Beijing, attended the protests.

"I'm not speaking against incineration technology. I just don't believe burning is the correct way to handle garbage in Beijing," he said.

A study published by the Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering in August 2009 analyzed samples of domestic garbage in Beijing's Chaoyang District. The results showed that household garbage comprised more than 40 percent water.

"Around 60 percent of the garbage from Chinese households is kitchen waste, which is not suitable for burning and generating power because of its low-calorific value," said Zhao.

Huang said he would support incineration only if there was proper garbage classification.

Abandoned treasure

In April 2010, the Beijing authorities launched a household garbage sorting campaign, involving 600 pilot residential communities. Residents living in those communities are required to separate their garbage into three categories—kitchen waste, recyclable material and other waste; separate bins were distributed for each type of waste. But the pilot project has made slow progress.

In recent years, a number of Chinese cities, such as Guangzhou and Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang Province, have begun carrying out household waste separation pilot projects. However, neither of these campaigns has been a success due to limited public awareness and participation.

"Many people do not know how to use them and they often do not know how to separate their garbage correctly. The country desperately needs a system that includes regulation, education and special funds," said Xie with Friends of Nature. "The government needs to do more than just offer free garbage bins and posters."

In late July, the 49-year-old Huang set up a garbage-sorting station near his home in Changping, which later received the support of the Beijing Municipal Government.

The project cost 140,000 yuan ($20,500). Since August, the facility has begun collecting garbage from 2,000 households.

For the facility to work, Huang's neighbors must carefully sort their garbage into two types—dry and wet. To help them do that, Huang has distributed special plastic bags to the households. Each of them bears the address of its particular recipient. As the bags are numbered, residents can tell if a particular household is breaking the rules and garbage disposed of incorrectly can be traced to its source.

Once collected, the dry garbage is divided into seven categories according to whether it consists of batteries, recyclable plastic ware, paper, textiles or something else. The wet garbage is first placed into a dryer.

"If water accounts for a third of the total weight of garbage, we could be talking about as much as 6,000 tons of water a day in Beijing leaking from waste if you simply bury it," Huang said.

Huang contends that drying wet garbage will greatly reduce the weight of the garbage produced in Beijing and allow the local government to save the money it now spends dealing with contaminated water from landfills.

The Green Beagle, another nongovernmental environmental organization based in Beijing, has recruited 30 volunteers for Huang.

The volunteers help Huang open every bag of garbage he collects and make records of its contents. They help in sorting the garbage and put wet garbage through the drier.

Besides the volunteers, Huang has enlisted full-time workers to help with the sorting.

"I am trying to set an example for the government to find a way to implement garbage sorting," Huang said. "If the government can push garbage sorting forward, I'm sure we can cut back 30 percent on household garbage production by 2015, even 50 percent."