Efficient and environmentally friendly disposal of urban garbage has become a pressing challenge for the country as it accelerates urbanization.

That one-third of the nation's cities are surrounded by landfills, whose accumulated occupation of land has reached 50,000 hectares nationwide, points to the severity of the problem. What is even more worrying is the fact that nearly 100 cities and 1,000 counties do not have the capability to dispose of the garbage produced by their residents except in landfills. For example, 90 percent of Beijing's garbage goes into landfills.

Incineration is considered one of the most environmentally friendly ways of disposing of garbage, but it requires that garbage be sorted and classified.