Reduce, reuse and recycle

BEIJING RESIDENTS WILL NOT ONLY HAVE TO pay for what they get, they will also have to pay for what they throw away next year.

The Beijing municipal authority announced last month that it will introduce a garbage disposal fee from March 1, 2012, the cost dependent on the amount and type of garbage.

While Dante had those who consume too much lying in the filth of the third circle of hell, for Beijing this circle is the seventh. For beyond the city's outer Sixth Ring Road there now lies a ring of refuse, comprising more than 400 large garbage dumps of tens of thousands square meters each that swallow 18,400 tons of waste every day.