While solar panels and wind turbines dominate headlines about China's energy transition, a less visible source of power has been expanding inside its cities: waste incineration plants that turn household rubbish into green electricity.

By the end of 2024, China's installed capacity of waste-to-energy generation had reached 27.38 gigawatts, generating about 145.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to data from the Biomass Energy Industry Promotion Association.

The technology works by burning municipal solid waste to generate high-temperature flue gas, which produces steam to drive turbine generators. The process allows cities to generate power while reducing the volume of waste sent to landfills.

According to data from China's 2024 Urban and Rural Construction Statistical Yearbook, the country's daily waste incineration capacity reached 1.158 million tonnes per day in 2024, well above the target of 800,000 tonnes per day set for 2025.

As a result, China's rate of "harmless" treatment of household waste – a category that includes incineration and other regulated methods – had reached 99 percent by 2024. Between 2005 and 2024, the share of municipal waste treated through landfilling fell to 5 percent from 85.2 percent, while incineration rose to 84.6 percent from 9.8 percent.

Incineration is now the dominant method for treating municipal solid waste. 

China had 1,129 waste incineration plants in operation by the end of 2024, with the highest concentration in eastern regions, where population density and urban waste volumes are greatest.

Beijing has built 13 waste-to-energy plants, with a total designed treatment capacity of 23,975 tonnes per day and installed power capacity of 526 megawatts, Song Yan, an official with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management, wrote in an article. The city plans to add two more plants in the long term, which would lift a combined daily treatment capacity to 28,550 tonnes.

In Beijing's Daxing District, a single waste incineration plant with a daily capacity of 5,100 tonnes can supply about 659 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to the grid each year when operating at full load, after meeting its own power needs – enough to cover the annual electricity consumption of about 300,000 households.

Beyond electricity generation, waste incineration also supports material recovery. At the aforementioned incineration plant, roughly 20 percent of burned waste remains as ash, and is sent to on-site treatment facilities where metals such as copper, iron and aluminum are separated and recycled.

In December, the Chinese government released an action plan to improve treatment of solid waste. The plan sets a target for annual utilization of 4.5 billion tonnes of bulk solid waste by 2030, and 510 million tonnes of recycled resources. 

Additionally, Chinese companies have exported waste-to-energy technology overseas. As of May 2025, Chinese firms had led or participated in 79 waste incineration power projects abroad, spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, South America and North America, according to data released by the All-China Environment Federation.

In Vietnam's fourth-largest city, a waste-to-energy plant invested in, built and operated by Everbright Environment, a Chinese environmental services firm, became the country's first operational incineration facility. About 90 percent of its workforce is local, and the electricity it generates can meet around 60 percent of the daily household power demand in the surrounding district.