China produces huge amounts of electricity by burning trash

The China Biomass Energy Industry Promotion Association released data showing that by the end of 2024, the installed capacity of waste-to-power plants will reach 27.38 GW, generating about 145.3 billion kWh of electricity. This is a technology that burns municipal solid waste to create high-temperature gas, which in turn creates steam to operate turbines to generate electricity. This process helps cities both produce electricity and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.

According to data from the 2024 China Urban and Rural Construction Statistical Yearbook, the country’s waste incineration capacity reaches 1.158 million tons/day. The rate of “harmless” household waste treatment, including incineration and other methods, reached 99%. In the period 2005-2024, the proportion of urban waste treated by landfilling will decrease from 85.2% to 5%, while the incineration method will increase from 9.8% to 84.6%.

Incineration is currently the main method for treating municipal solid waste. By the end of 2024, China had 1,129 waste incineration plants in operation.

Song Yan, an official of the Beijing Urban Management Commission, said the city has built 13 waste-to-energy plants with a total design waste treatment capacity of 23,975 tons/day, and an installed power generation capacity of 526 MW. The city plans to add two more plants in the long term, increasing the total processing capacity to 28,550 tons/day. A waste incineration plant with a capacity of 5,100 tons/day in Daxing district, Beijing, after meeting the electricity needs of about 300,000 households can still provide about 659 million kWh to the grid each year.

In addition to producing electricity, incineration also helps recover materials. At the above-mentioned Dai Hung factory, about 20% of the garbage after burning remains in the form of ash, which is transferred to a processing facility to separate and recycle metals such as copper, iron, and aluminum.

Last December, China announced an action plan to improve the efficiency of solid waste treatment, setting a goal that by 2030, each year it will utilize 4.5 billion tons of solid waste and 510 million tons of recycled resources. In addition, many Chinese companies also export technology to produce electricity from trash. According to the All-China Environmental Federation, as of May 2025, Chinese companies have presided over or participated in 79 waste-to-energy projects abroad, spread across continents.