Beijing Blasts Rubbish Tips With Deodorant

[Raistlin]

The deodorant cannon were invented by employees at the Gao'antun Garbage Landfill Plant, in Beijing's suburbs, after local officials were forced to apologise for the foul smells coming from the dump.

Other devices, such as odour-eating sheets were also brought in, along with a machine that extracts the foul-smelling gases and uses them to generate electricity.

Gao'antun landfill is just one of many sites struggling to process the mountains of rubbish produced by China's heaving capital.

Beijing's 17.6 million residents produce 18,400 tonnes of household garbage daily, 90 per cent of which is dumped in the 13 landfills dispersed around the city, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

The cannon, officially termed "high pressure long-range deodorant sprays", blast a liquid created from plant extract onto waste arriving at the site.

The biological compound neutralises the smell, its creators say, and the fragrance-covered rubbish is then buried under odour eating covering sheets and more deodorant is sprayed on top.

But not everyone is impressed.

Residents of a housing compound near the garbage dump say they have yet to see a result.

"Whenever the bad smell comes we are all coughing. At night we all wake up coughing. Even when you are sleeping soundly, you can wake up coughing.

Everyone opens their windows in the summer and there is that smell," said resident Geng Haiou, scrunching her nose at the memory.

Waste management experts have also expressed doubts over the deodorant scheme.

"The cannons are stench-neutralising tools that should be used under special circumstances.

But we cannot keep blasting all day long. We do not have that many canons," said Nie Yongfeng, Professor of Environmental and Engineering Sciences at Tsinghua University.

[Bizarra]

Those cannons should be on general issue

I know a few people who could do with a good blast and consider the amount of water that would be saved, if people only showered once a year

Bring them on

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

General sanitation and cleanliness is a problem in the U.K. also.

Why don't they recycle more of their rubbish? Wouldn't that provide a more effective solution?