Waste incineration firm reports on pollution levels

BEIJING - The amount of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, emitted from one of Beijing's two waste incineration plants is being released to the public in real time.

A large screen was this week established outside the 800 million yuan ($117 million) Gao'antun incineration plant in east Beijing's Chaoyang district to display the amount of toxins in the air. Dioxin, the major pollutant released from burning plastic and other garbage, was absent from the index.

The testing is carried out by the Environmental Engineering Group, which owns the plant and runs all waste treatment plants in Beijing. Emissions were this week all shown to be within safe limits.