Urban garbage major source of pollution

With over 700 cities producing over 100 tons of garbage daily, China has to cope with the growing problems associated with urban garbage. According to Xinhua, urban garbage has become one of the four major polluting sources in the country.

The same report said that about two-thirds of Chinese cities are surrounded by garbage. Left in the open-air, garbage damages the city's image, pollutes the environment and poses a threat to human life.

Dong Soucheng, executive director of the China Resources Institute, said that the next fifty years will be crucial as China's population scale and the urbanization process is expected to reach its peak. China should improve recycling in the country and make sure that less garbage is produced. It should also make use of garbage resources and turn garbage handling into an industry.

In related news, an official from Shenzhen province, Zeng Huisheng, has warned that plastic bags are damaging the environment and called for the government to enact legislature that would require people to pay for using them.

According to Zeng, resources are wasted worldwide because of the use of plastic bags. In Beijing alone, 2.3 billion plastic bags are thrown away every year.

Huang Jinshi, an official from the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, said that three billion plastic bags are used in the country daily, including one billion just for carrying daily vegetables, a Xinhua report said.