The True Cost of Coal – An Investigation into Coal Ash in China, focuses on a long-ignored type of coal pollution. An inevitable byproduct of coal power generation, coal ash is also China’s largest single source of industrial solid waste.
In 2009 alone, China generated at least 375 million tons of coal ash – more than twice the amount of urban domestic waste produced in the same time period. Coal ash is also toxic, containing large quantities of pollutants such as heavy metals and radioactive substances, which pose a huge threat to both the environment and public health.