China's largest rubbish dump to close as it fills to limit - 25 years ahead of schedule

Joe Gamp
·Contributor, Yahoo News UK
Updated
A bulldozer evens out garbage at a waste landfill site in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province March 11, 2010. REUTERS/Steven Shi (CHINA - Tags: ENVIRONMENT)
A bulldozer evens out garbage at a waste landfill site in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province (REUTERS)

China’s largest landfill site will shut down nearly 30 years ahead of its scheduled full capacity, as the country battles a growing waste problem.

Jiangcungou landfill in Shaanxi Province was originally designed to take 2,500 tonnes of rubbish per day.

The gargantuan mega-dump in Xi'an city was built in 1994 - and was supposed to last until 2044.

HANGZHOU, CHINA - AUGUST 07: A worker prepares to cover the waste with a capping layer at the Tianziling landfill site on August 7, 2019 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Wang Chuan/Visual China Group via Getty Images)
A worker prepares to cover the waste with a capping layer (GETTY)

The dump receives an estimated 10,000 tonnes of waste per day and is now closing some 25 years early.

The huge rubbish dump covers around 700,000 square metres in area, with a depth of 150 metres, as well as a waste storage capacity of more than 34 million cubic metres.

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After its closure, it is thought an ecological park will be built on the site.

Sun Jianjun, who is responsible for processing the rubbish in Xi'an's city administration bureau, said: "This place will become a large ecological park and reopen to the public with a better environment.”

Chinese workers sort out and bury kitchen waste at the Jiangcungou Landfill, which is the China's largest refuse landfill, in Xi'an city, northwest China's Shaanxi province, 21 August 2019. China's largest refuse landfill was set to close in October 2019 as it was almost saturated in Xi'an city, northeast China's Shaanxi province. The landfill was put into use in June 1994. (Photo by Tian ye - Imaginechina/Sipa USA)
China's largest refuse landfill was set to close in October 2019 as it was almost saturated in Xi'an city, northeast China's Shaanxi province (PA)

Chinese broadcaster CCTV report an electric power generation by a waste incineration project will take over the task of waste disposal.

The closure of Jiangcungou is part of nationwide drive to reduce the number of landfills and make way for disposal methods such as incineration.

In this photo taken on July 11, 2019, a man looks at piled up garbage at a housing complex in the former French concession in Shanghai. - Shanghai on July 1 launched China's most ambitious garbage separation and recycling programme ever, as the country confronts a rising tide of trash created by increasingly consumptive ways. But the programme is the talk of China's biggest city for other reasons as well: confusion over rules and fines for infractions, and thousands of volunteers inspecting citizens' private garbage each day. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP) / TO GO WITH: China-environment-waste-recycling, FOCUS by Lianchao LAN and Dan MARTIN (Photo credit should read HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)
A man looks at piled up rubbish at a housing complex in the former French concession in Shanghai (GETTY)

China is one of the world's biggest polluters, and has been struggling for years with the rubbish its 1.4 billion citizens generate.

SHENYANG, CHINA - JULY 09: Classified garbage is packaged at a refuse processing plant on July 9, 2019 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province of China. 112 communities and public organizations have used garbage sorting bins in Shenyang. The garbage sorting bins in Shenyang can automatically sort trash into different categories and then give points to residents according to the type and weight of garbage inserted. Residents can redeem the points for rewards. (Photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images)
Classified garbage is packaged at a refuse processing plant Getty Images)

China also dealt with waste from other countries, taking in seven million tonnes of plastic rubbish from Europe, Japan and the US in 2017 - and 27 million tonnes of waste paper.

But at end of that year, China decided to ban the import of 24 different grades of rubbish.