China’s waste-to-energy plants are facing an unexpected problem: a shortage of waste to burn. The reasons are slowing consumption, a shrinking population and improved waste management, the Financial Times reports.
A decade ago, Beijing was investing heavily in building a network of plants to combat the so-called “garbage sieges” of cities. Today, the country has more than 1,000 plants, more than half of the world’s capacity in this area. However, the growth in processing capacity has outpaced the actual volume of waste: in 2022, the plants could have processed 333 million tons of waste, while they collected only 311 million tons.
According to industry experts, some of the furnaces have been idle for months. To load the capacity, operators are forced to import construction waste or waste from neighboring regions. As a result, profitability is falling for businesses that were originally conceived as a quick and efficient way to dispose of waste as China becomes increasingly urbanized.
