There have already been around 400 tons of leaves that have fallen alongside the streets of Shijingshan District this winter. Instead of being mixed with domestic waste and buried on landfill sites like in the past, the leaves have been used to feed oxen and sheep at a livestock farm whose owner came to sanitation stations and asked for the leaves. This not only helps the livestock pass the winter, but it also saves the sanitation stations from covering the costs of clearing, transporting and burying the leaves. Reporters learned that the Shijingshan District Santitation Center has used this method to process the fallen leaves for the second consecutive year. 

Reporters learned that the leaves lying along the streets of Shijingshan District mainly fell from Populus lasiocarpa, Populus simonii, Chinese toon and pagoda trees. "The leaves we collected were buried at landfill sites in Mentougou District in the past, so we not only covered the high costs of clearing and transporting leaves, but also paid landfill sites fees. There was inevitably some air pollution such as dust that was kicked up during the transportation process," said Gao Fei, an official from the Shijingshan District Sanitation Center.

Last winter, to properly dispose of the fallen leaves, the Shijingshan District Sanitation Center found a good destination for the collected leaves - the Black Stone Sheep and Ox Farm, by sending the leaves there free of charge to be used as a basic component of animal food. "Having found that the livestock farm actively collects fallen leaves from poplar and pagoda trees, we immediately contacted them and discovered that this was an environmentally-friendly and win-win deal, so we started working with them. The partnership continues into this year," said Gao.

According to an employee from the livestock farm, all of herbivorous animals need to eat a certain amount of fiber in their diet, and the leaves from poplar and other types of trees contain multiple important nutrients such as cellulose, sugar, fat, protein, amino acid and other minerals, in levels much higher than those found in ordinary grasses. In particular, the nutrient value of fallen leaves in the winter is higher than that of grasses, and fallen leaves are more flavorful for oxen and sheep, which may help animals to pass the winter. "The 400 tons of fallen leaves may feed the oxen and sheep till fresh grass is available next year, reducing a lot of feeding costs," the employee added.

Straw can be recycled into new energy

Aside from turning fallen leaves into animal feed, Beijing Shengchang Bioenergy S&T Company, located in Lixian Township, Daxing District, has been collecting straw, sticks, sawdust and other "garbage." The company uses equipment to process the rural waste, compressing and turning these materials into solid particles or patch fuels. These types of bio-fuel can not only be used for cooking and heating in rural households, but also can be used for fuel in boilers.

"The straw around our plant was usually burned with heavy, black smoke in the past, which was hard to prevent. Now, in order to make money, the farmers nearby all send us straw," said manager Cao of the company. The waste, such as the straw and sticks that are so common in rural areas will be processed into pollution-free clean energy. The heat produced by a unit volume of biomass fuel is 15 times that produced by directly burning straw, and this new type of fuel is priced between 500 yuan and about 1000 yuan.

Vegetable and fruit waste can be turned into fertilizer through fermentation

Nearly 100 tons of fruits and vegetables from the Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural Wholesale Market were previously transferred to sanitation stations for treatment as garbage. However, the environmentally-friendly garbage treatment plant established by the market applies smashing, compressing, thermophilic fermentation and biochemical processes to turn them into fertilizers. Reporters learned that this "waste" could now not only create indirect benefits of 4.3 million yuan per year when it is used in the flower industry, but also annually saves the cost of transporting and treating vegetable and fruit waste by about nine million yuan.