China has converted a chimney at the Fushan Circular Economy Industrial Park in Guangzhou into a 120-metre tower, which serves as a tourist attraction while also processing 8,000 tonnes of household waste daily. The facility is part of China's broader shift from landfill-based waste management to energy and material recovery through incineration. This change reflects an effort to address the increasing volume of urban waste in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, each generating over 20,000 tonnes daily.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-16,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
China has turned a huge part of a waste treatment facility in Guangzhou into a public attraction.
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China → turn → attraction
A former chimney at the Fushan Circular Economy Industrial Park has been transformed into a 120-metre-high tower, allowing visitors to look across the site from above.
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visitors → transform → site
The facility processes thousands of tonnes of household waste every day and has become a popular tourist attraction.
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facility → process → waste
This development shows how waste treatment is shifting in China, with rubbish increasingly being processed for energy and material recovery instead of simply being buried.
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rubbish → show → recovery
The 120-metre tower overlooking an 8,000-tonne waste plant
The tower stands at the Fushan Circular Economy Industrial Park in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.
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tower → overlook → Guangzhou
The State Council Information Office reports that the former chimney was converted into a 120-metre-high tower.
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chimney → report → tower
Xinhua reported that the facility has been developed with a garden-like setting.
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facility → report → setting
Visitors can climb the tower, enjoy coffee and take in a panoramic view of the site.
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Visitors → climb → site
The location has also become part of a national 3A-level tourist attraction.
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location → become → attraction
The setting gives an unique public face to an operation that normally remains out of sight.
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that → give → sight
Beneath the tower, the facility deals with 8,000 tonnes of household waste every day, making it one of the large-scale waste treatment sites serving the city.
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it → deal → city
China is moving towards a different way of treating waste
The Guangzhou facility forms part of a wider change in China's approach to household rubbish.
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facility → move → rubbish
Xinhua reported that the country has been moving away from relying on landfill and towards methods that can recover energy and useful materials from waste.
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that → report → waste
The scale of urban rubbish has made that change increasingly important.
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change → make → rubbish
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen each generate more than 20,000 tonnes of household waste a day, according to Xinhua.
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Beijing → generate → Xinhua
In earlier years, large quantities of rubbish accumulated in landfills around some cities.
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quantities → accumulate → cities
The shift means waste is increasingly treated as a material that can still provide value after it has been discarded.
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it → mean → value
Incineration has become a major part of that system, with modern plants using the heat produced during burning to generate electricity and, in some cases, supply heat or steam to industry.
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plants → become → industry
What happens when household waste is incinerated
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waste → happen → ?
According to Xinhua, most of China's household waste is now incinerated instead of simply buried.
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most → accord → waste
Modern facilities can use the heat generated during the process to produce electricity, while some also supply heat to nearby industrial users.
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some → use → users
Foshan, also in Guangdong, provides one example.
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Foshan → provide → example
Its eco-industrial park processes 4,500 tonnes of household waste each day.
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park → process → waste
The high-temperature steam produced during treatment is supplied through pipelines to nearby factories, where it replaces fossil fuels.
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it → produce → fuels
The process is also designed to control harmful emissions.
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process → design → emissions
Xinhua reports that modern incinerators operate their furnaces at temperatures above 850 degrees Celsius, allowing dioxins to be broken down.
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dioxins → report → degrees
Activated carbon, bag filters and other systems are then used to deal with substances remaining in the flue gas.
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carbon → use → gas
Shanghai's Laogang Waste Disposal Base provides another example.
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Base → provide → example
Xinhua says much of its operation, including unloading, fermentation, incineration and emissions monitoring, is automated.
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much → say → unloading
Its flue-gas pollutants are described as being near zero, with the facility performing beyond Chinese national and European Union standards.
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facility → describe → standards
Turning waste ash into useful material
Waste treatment
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Turning → turn → treatment
The material left behind can also be processed and reused.
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material → leave → ?
Xinhua reports that bottom ash accounts for about 20% of the waste and contains materials such as iron, copper, aluminium and small quantities of gold and silver.
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ash → report → gold
At the Fushan Circular Economy Industrial Park, ash produced in 2025 was processed into material for environmentally friendly bricks used in roads and buildings.
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ash → produce → roads
The quantity processed was about 600,000 tonnes.
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quantity → process → ?
The figures also show how quickly incineration has expanded in China.
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incineration → show → China
Official data cited by Xinhua states that incineration accounted for 78.1 per cent of China's urban household waste treatment capacity by November 2025.
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incineration → cite → November
What happened to China’s old waste mountains
The move towards modern treatment can also be seen in what is happening to former landfill sites.
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what → happen → sites
Xinhua reports that more than 80% of Chinese cities had completed the remediation of ageing waste mountains by 2025.
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% → report → 2025
Shenzhen provides a notable example.
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Shenzhen → provide → example
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
