China faces new problem: Disposing of tainted milk

The shadow of the tainted milk from China has been haunting all over the world, but now Chia faces a new problem with the tainted milk that has sickened babies and battered public confidence: How to get rid of the toxic stuff? It has been burned, buried and mixed into coal. One trash-hauling company dumped a load into a river, turning the waters a frothy white and raising fears about the safety of the drinking water. Tens of thousands of tons of milk laced with melamine, a chemical used in making fertilizer and plastics, have been pulled from shelves and warehouses since September, and local governments now face the huge — and costly — problem of safely disposing of it.

China Health Ministry has not released a total figure for the amount of impure dairy products recalled or said how much has been destroyed. But last month alone, more than 32,000 tons — enough to fill about 23 Olympic-sized pools — were disposed of in a single province, Hebei, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The fear of the tainted milk wouldn’t be easily erased off from the mind of most of the consumers all over the world.