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Loading...China Takes Aim At Landfill Stench….With Giant Perfume Guns?!
Like many rapidly developing countries, China is being forced to admit that it isn’t prepared to deal the amount of the trash produced by a growing economy and increasing middle-class prosperity.
A city of over 17 million people, the amount of waste produced every day in Beijing is mind-boggling, and more than 200 landfills, both legal and illegal, have sprung up to accept the by-products of the country’s new throw-away lifestyle.
Recently, citizens living near one of the biggest dump sites, the Asuwei Landfill, have begun to complain about the stench of rotting trash drifting into their homes — a scent that appropriately mirrors the growing public concern about sanitation, environmental health and a runaway consumer culture.
Instead of learning from the mistakes of America and other Western countries already choking on the fumes of their own “affluenza,” and encouraging people to reduce their consumption of so-called disposable products, Beijing has decided to treat the symptom instead of the problem.
In early May, 100 high-pressure fragrance guns will be installed at the landfill, in an attempt to mask the scent of the rotting rubbish. The guns will be capable of spraying dozens of liters of chemical fragrance into the air every minute.
(Mmmmm…there’s nothing like having the scent of strawberries and decaying garbage waft through your window on a warm summer day!)
Even though this idea seems like a preposterous waste of money, there are some city officials who admit that while the perfume guns might satiate people for a short period of time, they are in no way a long term solution.
“All landfill and treatment sites in Beijing will be full in four years. That’s how long it takes to build a treatment plant. So we need to act right now to resolve the issue,” Wang Weiping, a waste expert in the city government, told The Guardian. “It’s necessary to restructure the current disposal system. We cannot rely on landfill anymore. It’s a waste of space.”
There’s been no discussion yet of the negative impact that releasing this enormous volume of chemical fragrance into the air will have on Beijing’s already poor air quality.
Read more: china, composting, environment & wildlife, landfill, perfume, zero waste
Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons - D'Arcy Norman
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Recent Comments from Causes
Amazing news :)
Feel sorry for all dogs who are forced to live this way. Thanks for keeping us informed.
Ken G., sorry, but I don't understand this part of your comment........."Nah, no such law. If there were,…
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125 comments
+ add your ownOMG! What a friggin' idiotic "solution" to a stench of a problem!
come on now thats just stupid giant perfume guns haha lolololol there a comunist country just make the companies recycle all the waste
That's just crazy! Not only do many people find the smell of chemical perfume unpleasant, but spraying even more chemicals into the air will only make the situation worse - environmentally and health-wise. What about the people who have asthma? People aren't allowed to wear perfume in schools and hospitals for health reasons, yet these so-called professionals plan on pumping out industrial quantities of it where millions of people are going to breathe it!
chinese people are far from being in harmony with the Earth. first of all because they have demonic comunism then because they have huge population growth. they need democracy and finish being so involved into cooperation with a matter.
I'd like to see this in a glade commercial!
In Chinese Medicine there is an herb used for children who still wet there beds after the age of... 1. That is because untill very recently they did not have diapers and didn't have much of a choice. Imagine what a relief it was for them to discover they have other solutions! But "solutions" such as this and others create new problems like lanfills which create new "solutions" like more chemicals sprayed in the air which will create even more and probably worse problems...
I guess they haven't yet caught up with the best solution that existed there long before we westeners conquered them, they have forgotten and we already started discovering: reduce, reuse, recycle.
Actually a great protion of thier problem is caused by the fact that almost anything nowadays is Made In China... because we westeners are looking for the easy way out.
I didn't know a nation of people could be so backward as to try something this, yes, I'm going to use the word....stupid.
honestly? the perfume is just as dangous to the enviornment as the landfill is. It will only be adding to the problem, plus that much perfume sprayed on the garbage will only add to the toxins drifting into peoples homes. honestly i would rather just smell garbage.
This is ludicrous. Giant perfume guns? Really? I mean, I'm all for creative solutions, but only when they actually resolve the problem.
We all have to take responsibility for our choices and the whole world needs to help make the right ones,NOW, before it's too late.
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