The winners and losers of the Chinese waste processing plant in Kyrgyzstan
The Chinese waste processing plant under construction in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek. Photo from the press service of Bishkek's Mayor's Office. Copyright free.
This article was submitted as part of the Global Voices Climate Justice Fellowship, which pairs journalists from Sinophone and Global Majority countries to investigate the effects of Chinese development projects abroad.
The Kyrgyz government and the private Chinese company Hunan Junxin Environment Protection Limited (湖南军信环保股份有限公司) laid a capsule for the construction of a waste processing plant in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, on March 29, 2024. The construction is expected to finish at the end of 2025. It will be the first waste processing plant in Central Asia to generate electricity by burning 1,000 tons of waste daily, effectively covering Bishkek’s 1.3 million population’s waste disposal needs.
Kyrgyzstan has long wished to build such a plant to solve its air pollution issue. Thus, the government has framed this project as a major win for the country, especially because the Chinese side will bear all the costs (USD 95 million). However, a closer look at the agreement reveals a more complex picture, with Kyrgyzstan also making significant concessions to solve one of its most pressing environmental problems.
Kyrgyzstan's former Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Akylbek Japarov, laying the capsule for the waste plant. Photo from the press service of Bishkek's Mayor's Office. Copyright free.
A fourth and final try
Bishkek’s mayor’s office has attempted and failed to build a waste processing plant on three different occasions.
The first attempt was in 2013, when Kyrgyzstan received USD 24 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Most of the funds were stolen, and four criminal cases were launched, which are all still pending.
The second attempt was in 2021 when the mayor’s office signed a memorandum with a Turkish company called Biotrend Energy. No further news came afterward.
The third attempt was in 2023, when it signed an agreement with a Czech company called ReGreen s.r.o. The company was newly established and could not fulfill its obligations on time, prompting the mayor’s office to annul the agreement.
Whilst these events unfolded, the size of the Bishkek waste dump kept growing and contributing to environmental degradation. Since its establishment in 1974, the dump has grown from 12 hectares to 74 hectares. It was supposed to close down in 1994, according to Aimeerim Tursalieva, a co-founder of the waste management organization called Tazar, who spoke with Global Voices.
Here is a YouTube video about the waste dump in Bishkek.
The problem of air pollution grew to a point where Bishkek became a mainstay on the list of cities with the highest levels of air pollution. Among multiple contributing factors were the smog from fires at the waste dump and the thermal power plant that burns coal. While fires can be common at waste fields, the fire at the dump burned for 10 years and was only put out in 2023.
Thus, when promoting the plant, the mayor’s office highlighted how it would reduce air pollution. In an interview with a local radio station, the deputy mayor, Zhyrgalbek Shamyraliev, stressed that the plant will reduce the waste dump’s polluting effect by disinfecting the garbage and stopping it from growing in size. He added that the plant will generate 20 MWh of electricity, which will partially relieve the thermal power plant.
Exporting waste-to-energy disposal technology
China and Kyrgyzstan share a geographic border and maintain close economic and political ties, which reached the comprehensive strategic partnership status in 2023. Kyrgyzstan’s location to the west of China makes it an important actor in the country's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is China's mega development initiative focusing on infrastructure projects in the Global Majority countries. It is difficult to overestimate the Kyrgyz economy’s reliance on China, which is the biggest trading partner, investor, and debt lender.
Kyrgyzstan’s main partner in this waste disposal endeavor, Junxin, is often praised among companies from China’s southern Hunan province that have taken part in the BRI. Official releases by Chinese state-run media invariably frame the company as high-tech and environmentally safe. A state-funded CCTV article from earlier this year, for example, touts the project in Bishkek as “injecting ‘Chinese power’ into Kyrgyz environmental protection” and terms Junxin a “national high-tech enterprise.”
The company was started in 2011, expanding to a dominant position in municipal sludge treatment in the regional capital Changsha. It specializes in solid waste disposal, as well as waste-to-energy projects, touting power generation through clean incineration. It completed its waste disposal plant in Changsha in 2022. During his visit to this plant in January 2024, Shamyraliev described it with the following words:
Junxin превратила территорию мусорного полигона в парк высоких технологий, где плодотворно развивается научная исследовательская работа, направленная на охрану окружающей среды.
Junxin has transformed the landfill site into a high-tech park where scientific research aimed at environmental protection is fruitfully developing.
Here is an Instagram post with the photos of Shamyraliev's visit to Junxin's waste processing facility in Changsha.
Junxin is one of the 300 Chinese waste disposal plants, which have helped the country accumulate the world’s largest waste-to-energy capacity. China touts that it has built waste-to-energy facilities in multiple foreign countries.
Junxin has met with government delegations from multiple countries, but Kyrgyzstan appears to be its first major overseas waste disposal facility.
Who's the bigger winner?
Although the mayor’s office has framed itself as the ultimate winner, the new plant will come at a hefty cost. Thus, it has conveniently concealed the agreement terms with Junxin from the public. Independent media outlet Mediazona has found and studied the framework agreements signed between Junxin and Bishkek’s mayor’s office and Kyrgyzstan’s Cabinet of Ministers.
The waste processing plant in Bishkek under construction in December 2024. Photo from the press service of Bishkek's Mayor's Office. Copyright free.
First, Kyrgyzstan is obliged to provide Junxin with a landfill site for the disposal of hazardous substances from the plant free of charge. It is not clear what damage these substances will bring to the environment. Though Junxin has several environmental awards domestically, a study conducted by the National Science Foundation of China found that its waste disposal in Changsha still had microplastics and heavy metals even after incineration.
Moreover, people in China have protested over the polluting effects of waste-to-energy projects, with the release of airborne particles, at times impacting local water supplies.
This is relevant for Bishkek since the waste dump where Junxin’s landfill site will also be located is surrounded by residential settlements and the Ala-Archa reservoir.
Second, the mayor’s office must pay Junxin USD 17 for every ton of processed waste, totaling USD 17,000 daily. Annually, the sum adds up to USD 6.2 million. In addition, Junxin will own all the generated electricity and can sell it to any company.
Third, Junxin will hold ownership over the plant at the end of the 35-year agreement. Should the sides fail to reach an extension, all the property will be disposed of after consultations. Thus, Kyrgyzstan will not have any ownership over it. In contrast, the waste sorting plant in Kyrgyzstan's second largest city, Osh, built and operated by a private Russian company, will be handed over to the government after 10 years.
Here is a YouTube video about the waste-sorting facility in Osh.
Adding to the doubts over the reasonability of this plant is its focus on burning waste. Co-founder of the waste management company in Kyrgyzstan called Tazar, Aimeerim Tursalieva, believes that priority must be given to a waste sorting and recycling plant because 70 percent of Bishkek’s waste is recyclable. She stated:
Сжигание мусора неплохо когда у города уже есть продвинутая система сортировка мусора, а Бишкек пошел не достиг этого уровня.
Burning waste makes sense in places with advanced waste management and sorting systems, and Bishkek has not reached that stage yet.
In fairness, Junxin will not only burn waste but also recycle it and make construction materials out of it. However, it is not clear how much waste Junxin will recycle, and given the agreement terms, one can assume its greater interest is in burning waste because of the financial incentives.
Kyrgyzstan is not sitting idle either. On March 25, 2025, President Sadyr Japarov allocated KGS 100 million (USD 1.15 million) for the development of a waste sorting system in the capital, showing authorities’ recognition of the need to sort and recycle waste.
In exchange for the concessions to Junxin, Bishkek will gain a critically important facility to solve the long-standing issue of waste-induced pollution. The current waste dump has long reached its maximum capacity. An alternative to the plant is to allocate land for a new waste dump, which would be worse in terms of creating an additional source of pollution or losing time looking for another investor.
Under these circumstances, the Chinese waste processing plant is similar to a life buoy thrown to someone in a critical situation. Decades of ignoring the waste issue and failure to come to terms with other investors have led Bishkek to a desperate state where it cannot pursue effective negotiations and advance its interests.
