Recently, the phenomenon of waste incineration plants scrambling for waste and excavating and reusing sealed landfill waste has drawn widespread attention across China. Once a burden on cities, waste has now become a valuable resource for recycling, marking a pivotal breakthrough in China's municipal solid waste treatment—shifting from the "garbage siege" predicament to energy conversion, and taking solid strides in the development of a circular economy.

In the past, landfilling was the primary method for municipal waste treatment in China. It not only consumed massive land resources but also posed environmental risks such as soil and groundwater pollution. Cities including Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Guangzhou all once grappled with a severe "garbage siege". Driven by technological breakthroughs and a shift in concepts, waste-to-energy incineration has become the top disposal method for urban solid waste. Its proportion officially surpassed sanitary landfilling in 2020, and by 2024, incineration accounted for 78.9% of China's municipal solid waste treatment, with the harmless treatment rate reaching nearly 100%.

At present, China has built more than 1,000 large-scale waste incineration plants with a daily treatment capacity of over 1.1 million tons, forming a fully independent and controllable industrial system covering the entire industrial chain. Fermentation pretreatment technology, developed for the characteristics of China's waste, has increased waste calorific value, and key equipment such as mechanical grates has been localized. Meanwhile, green and eco-friendly incineration is ensured through measures like decomposing dioxins via temperature control at 850℃ and real-time full-process monitoring. Benchmark projects such as Hangzhou Linjiang Environmental Energy Project and Guangzhou Circular Economy Industrial Park have been put into operation, converting waste into clean energy including electricity and natural gas. During the 15th National Games in 2025 alone, Guangzhou's waste-to-energy incineration generated 160 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity.

Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's waste-to-energy incineration capacity has increased by 72.4% compared with the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Guangzhou has achieved "zero landfilling" of raw municipal solid waste, while Shenzhen and Guangzhou have restored land ecology by excavating and incinerating aged waste. In the meantime, China's waste incineration technology is going global under the Belt and Road Initiative, with Chinese enterprises participating in the construction of 79 related overseas projects to date, offering Chinese solutions for global waste treatment.

Resource：https://gongyi.cctv.com/2026/03/23/ARTIgK9Vfzaw5HXSKwvxSVau260323.shtml