ABSTRACT
The Chinese government sees the incineration of garbage as the most effective solution for the problem of disposing of the ever-increasing amounts of waste generated by the steadily expanding populations in the urban centres (Yang, 2013). Good governance is generally considered a prerequisite of urban health. Indicators for the level of modernity, development, and social progress of a state include setting up health governance organizations and institutions, such as the provision of services for sanitation and garbage removal and disposal (Kickbusch, 2007; Vlahov et al., 2007). Beijing and other Chinese metropolises all aspire to be seen as proper modern (global world) cities, using Singapore as their inspiration. All of these cities have top-down organized garbage disposal structures in place, with garbage trucks, transfer stations, landfills, and incinerators. Informal garbage collecting/ picking may be more efficient than automated processes (and cheaper, since it contributes raw materials back into the production process), but it is undertaken by an unregulated ‘population [which] can be theorized as a kind of disposability and throwing away within capitalism’ (Yates, 2011: 1680). Added to this is that informal waste picking is less efficient in practice than we often assume or are led to believe. All this is seen as a blight on the modern, well-organized image of the Chinese city that the government wants to project, and this reflects badly on the officialdom that manages it (Ou, 2011; Williams, 2014: 196). But how many incinerators will China need to cope with its garbage?
