Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition to transportation, Shanghai produces a huge amount of solid
waste daily. In 1994, the city generated thirty-fi ve thousand tons of solid
waste per day, equal to 12.5 million tons per year, with two-thirds of this
waste generated by industry and one-third by households. Although indus-
try historically reused a large percentage of its wastes, disposal remains a
major problem. h e wastes consist principally of heavy metals, organic
waste, waste acids and alkalis, calcium carbide residue, toxic sludge, and
various organic chemical compounds.
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In the early 1990s, 40 percent of the
waste was barged along canals and rivers to two poorly designed landfi lls.
h e rest was either disposed at 410 uno' cial stockpile sites or dumped,
often into waterways, although new infrastructure has vastly improved the
situation.
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But by 2000, the amount of waste in Shanghai had increased
dramatically, with a signifi cant amount burned in incinerators that produce
extremely toxic ash.
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h ese complex environmental and land-use challenges in Shanghai have
been dealt with in very particular ways. h e city is getting cleaner and the
environmental picture is brighter, in part due to state-centered investments
in infrastructure and the use of heavy carrots and sticks to induce better
e' ciencies in its residents.
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Using other measures, however, the environ-
mental picture is much more mixed, with the prognosis for improvements
murkier.
conclusion
h is chapter focused on the confl icting realities, desires, hopes, and dreams
surrounding “Chinese pollution” in the United States and in China, and how
they all infl uence the emergence of eco-Shanghai discourses. Laying out the
environmental history of Chinese pollution helps us to understand the con-
temporary realities and discourses around “Chinese pollution” at the Beijing
Olympics and in CCP policy. h ese political and cultural contexts for Shang-
hai's ecological development put what is happening in Dongtan eco-city,
