Read it on a recent issue of "The Economist". China being a nation of 1.35 billion plus people, the handling of trash is a major problem, especially in the urban centers. When they are people, they will produce trash. The city of Sanghai itself produces 22000 tons of trash every day, a gargantuan amount. All this cannot be handled by filling up the landfills, many were stacked outside. So the pragmatic Chinese authorities came with the idea of using incinerators, especially imported from Japan.
But the use of incinerators was not free from its side effects. In the affluent Lake side city of Shangzhu, the foul smell emanated from the burning trash at 850 degrees became as burning issue for the local populace, who protested by burning a few government vehicles. As usual the retaliation by the Chinese authorities was swift and effective. The state immediately poured in law enforcement officials into the city, both in uniform and in civilian cloth. They ruthlessly suppressed the protest and continued implementing their agenda, still incinerating the trash.
Once, Deng Xiao Ping told the Americans who love to lecture about democracy, that the "Jeffersonian Democracy is not applicable to every nation. We don't care about the cat being black and white as long as it catches mice". There is no magic bullet to handle trash of 22000 tons per day. It has to go somewhere. Obviously landfill and recycling can't handle everything. It cannot be left decomposing in open environment. If incineration takes care of part it, let it be so. No cure to a solution is free from side effects, as no medicinal drug is. When the Bull is in the China shop, the nation knows how to take it by horn, collateral damages not withstanding.
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