China Finds New Use For Untreated Sewage Sludge - Fertilizer For Fruits & Vegetables
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Where do truckers take these gooey loads of organic materials, bacteria, heavy metals and micro-organisms? A Caixin investigation found sludge from Gaobeidian has been hauled two hours away to a Hebei Province farming area and renamed "fertilizer" before being dumped on fields where corn and watermelons are grown. Caixin followed the sludge-hauling truck bearing Beijing license plate number AK7834 and with a yellow, Gaobeidian plant tag on the windshield as the driver left the pavement at a farm in Guanjiawu Township, Yongqing County, Langfang Prefecture.
The driver steered off-road through the barren field for a few hundred meters before stopping, lifting the rear bed hatch and dumping the stinky sludge onto the bare ground. Another truck of the same make and markings, also with a Gaobeidian windshield tag, was seen around the same time heading in the opposite direction, empty.
Residents of Anyu village who work the farm and other fields nearby later said they were told the dark substance carried by trucks was fertilizer. They also said trucks from Beijing had been depositing similar loads locally for at least two years. The dumping coincided with a village farm collective's decision to let a non-local contractor take over management of the farm.
"Over the past two or three years, big trucks with Beijing plates have come and dumped mud," said one villager. "We thought it was a special fertilizer that the land contractor was buying." A biting stench in the village air, however, conflicted with the fertilizer explanation. The area scene from the road was of soft, black sludge spread across dozens of hectares waiting for a plow. In other fields, the sludge had already been plowed under.
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http://english.caixin.com/2013-08-08/100566999.html
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