Garbage treatment: turning waste into treasure

Several containers are neatly placed under the kitchen sink with categorized waste in them. Different-colored waste bins sit alongside the road with signs indicating what garbage they take. Modern-equipped facilities at the clean garbage treatment plant "swallow" different waste and "spit out" sewage gas, electricity and fertilizer.

At the ongoing World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, Xinhua reporters saw many displays demonstrating all kinds of eco-friendly ways to turn waste into treasure.

MALMO, SWEDEN

At the best urban practice exhibition area, visitors can see clear classification of garbage in every family and every block in the Swedish city of Malmo.

Different trash cans are for different wastes: food waste, glass bottles, paper and cartons, plastic and metal.

After treatment and recycling, classified waste can be used again: food waste to become fertilizer and to produce biogas, offscum to pave roads, used glass and plastic bottles, newspapers and metal containers to be recycled.

According to Yao Shuang, manager of the Malmo exhibition, 77 percent of packaging and newspaper in Sweden was recycled in 2009, and Sweden's goal is to give 35 percent of food waste biological treatment.


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