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
