Beijing Saturday inaugurated its first kitchen trash treatment plant that will serve the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Kitchen trash from 122 hotels that have entered into partnership with the Beijing Olympics organizing committee and those from 31 Olympic sports facilities will be treated at the plant.

It is the first of four similar plants planned by the Chinese capital in a white paper on the treatment of rubbish.

Situated inside Daxing District, southern Beijing, and with a cost of 21.34 million yuan (about US$2.67 million), the plant covers an area of 0.39 hectares and is capable of processing 73,000 tons of kitchen trash a year.

Currently, there are more than 200,000 restaurants and canteens across the city, producing 1,200 tons of trash daily.

"Before the Olympics opens in 2008, a larger number of these restaurants and canteens will have their trash collected together and treated," said Guo Weidong, a publicity official with Beijing utility administration commission.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2007)