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Pictured above: a massive waste-to-energy plant in Shenzhen, China.
Seventeen years on the streets, living and working with the people of China, Jeff
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My comments before diving in
When my family and I lived in Beijing, China from 1990 to 1997, the air pollution was so bad and incredibly opaque that most days we couldn’t even see across a four-lane street. I’m not exaggerating. All out to the southwest of the city were hundreds of giant smokestacks with pink, blue, purple, black, white, gray, yellow and red plumes of chemical pollution being belched from their chimneys. Shougang, off to Beijing’s east was a massive, practically prewar-level steel mill. The pollution was absolutely atrocious. As it was winding down for more modern plants, we would drive around it with dystopian marvel. We fantasized and play-acted film scenes from Robocop, Mad Max and Blade Runner, having a lot of fun in the process. Now, decommissioned, today, it is a popular tourist spot and used as a film set for futuristic, sci-fi and dystopian movies (https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2022/03/25/shougang-park).
We traveled all over China. Everywhere, the air was putrid. The land was polluted. Waterways were polluted. Most of the waterways that we traveled on were as black as tar and smelled like human feces. We saw human bodies floating in some of the lakes and rivers.
I remember back in the day seeing satellite photos of Beijing with massive, mountain landfills between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ring Roads, like a gigantic Rosetta Stone from hell. It was absolutely horrifying.
My oh my, how times have changed. It’s hard to believe that in 2018, I wrote a couple of articles (see below) how China started refusing to take the West garbage, to glean what is valuable and then throw away the rest, making all those landfill mountains even higher.
These days, Sinoland is the most environmentally conscious big economy on our Pale Blue Dot.
Since then, China and Taiwan (there are two references below), are producing a lot of electricity burning their garbage. That’s why their official name is waste-to-energy plants. Evelyne and I have always wondered why there are several classes of plastic that they do not want to recycle here in Taiwan Province. And now I see why. It’s because for these incinerators, plastic is high energy. It’s like oil. As long as they put scrubbers on them and filter what comes out of the chimneys, there’s no danger. They burn so hot that the pollutants and chemicals are reduced to fly ash, which is a pollutant. However, it’s much easier to sequester a mound of fly ash than manage a poisonous mountain landfill.
And they produce a huge amount of electricity.
The article below from CGTN will show you just how much electricity China is producing. And the irony is maybe China wishes it hadn’t quit taking container loads of garbage, because now they are in desperate shortage of the stinky stuff. Of course, I’m joking. Yet, rumor has it China is again importing garbage to keep these plants humming, I read somewhere paying about $9 a ton (https://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0625/c90000-20332502.html). Now it is profitable for them to go into all the landfills around the country, using big bulldozers, mining trucks, etcetera, to haul this garbage to the incinerators and burn it to create electricity.
It’s not that electricity in China is expensive. Electricity in China is 3.6 times cheaper than Talmud-Tanakh France and 2.4 times cheaper than hapless citizens pay in Judeo-USA (https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/electricity_prices/). But being a communist-socialist country, the Chinese can make these kind of visionary plans and programs work. Taiwan Province is much closer to the Mainland than the Judeo-West, being only 12.8% more expensive. Given the economies of scale, that’s understandable.
Comments from China Writer Wei Ling Chua, who found this info
China keep doing the right things ‼️soon, there will be zero rubbish landfills, no pollution within China ‼️they are already exporting the technology to help the world clean up the environment ‼️
Further reading
Chinese democracy says “NO MORE” to Western garbage. China Rising Radio Sinoland 180421
Chinese democracy says “NO MORE” to Western garbage. China Rising Radio Sinoland 180421
China’s Western garbage ban redux. You can’t make this stuff up. China Rising Radio Sinoland 180423
China’s Western garbage ban redux. You can’t make this stuff up. China Rising Radio Sinoland 180423
Taiwan Province has 25 large-scale waste-to-energy incinerators
https://www.ema.gov.tw/en/affairs/general-waste/waste-incineration-plant/295.html
Mainland China has over 1,000 waste-to-energy incinerators
Books by Mike Palecek
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Other series by boots-on-the-ground China Writer travelers reporting on real China and real Chinese people!
Stay caught up with Amir&Jeff’s Amazing Adventure, journeying through the wilds of inner China, where foreigners don’t go! Short videos, captioned photos, articles, critical commentary.
State of the Chinese Union 2025: based on five months recently journeying across the country’s backwoods + 16 years living there. Speech given to Samui Real, Thailand, 13 August 2025
ADVENTURES IN ASIA WITH LADYB, FASHU, LAOLAO AND GONGGONG Series (focused on Taiwan Province and the rest of Asia)
Jeff’s many articles about Taiwan Province
Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure Series. Months spent traveling the back roads of China. Short videos with transcripts, captioned photos, articles and critical commentary. The REAL Chinese people you do not know!
Frans Vandenbosch: Final reflections on an extraordinary voyage
https://yellowlion.org/asia-trip-2025-part-11/
Do yourself, your friends, family and colleagues a favor, to make sure all of you are Sino-smart
Google ebooks (Epub), audiobooks, plus Amazon print books and Kindle
44 Days Backpacking in China: The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YBKHEAAAQBAJ
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAECCkQXRlM
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484939999/
China Rising: Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YNmLEAAAQBAJ
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAECCfHo86M
https://www.amazon.com/China-Rising-Capitalist-Socialist-Destinations/dp/0996487042
BIG Red Book on China: Chinese History, Culture and Revolution
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=6Wl4EAAAQBAJ
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAECCfHo86M
https://www.amazon.com/BIG-Red-Book-China/dp/1673322719/
Author page:
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Praise for The China Trilogy:
Jeff J. Brown’s libraries and catalogues A-Z: 1,000s of hours of research, writing, editing and podcasting.
Why and How China works: With a Mirror to Our Own History
ABOUT JEFF BROWN
JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and BIG Red Book on China (2020). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
Jeff can be reached at China Rising, [email protected], Facebook, Twitter, Wechat (+8613823544196 or my ID, Jeff_Brown-44_Days, and Line/Telegram/Whatsapp: +33-612458821.
Read it in your language • Lealo en su idioma • Lisez-le dans votre langue • Lies es in deniner Sprache • Прочитайте это на вашем языке • 用你的语言阅读
[google-translator]
JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and BIG Red Book on China (2020). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
Jeff can be reached at China Rising, [email protected], Facebook, Twitter, Wechat (+8613823544196 or my ID, Jeff_Brown-44_Days, and Line/Telegram/Whatsapp: +33-612458821.
[google-translator]
Wechat group: search the phone number +8613823544196 or my ID, Jeff_Brown-44_Days, friend request and ask Jeff to join the China Rising Radio Sinoland Wechat group. He will add you as a member, so you can join in the ongoing discussion.
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