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Before you go patting yourself on the back for recycling your water bottle yesterday or turning the tap off while you brush your teeth, consider what life will be like in the eco-city of Dongtan. The city won't have a landfill. Why would they need one since they don't plan to have any garbage? Dongtan Eco-City: The eco-city of Dongtan outside of ShanghaiArup , the creative force behind this project and many like it, is designing and creating the master plan of an eco-city near Shanghai. The first phase of Dongtan should be complete by 2010 and will include enough housing for 5-thousand people. The city will grow in phases, up to a population of a half million people by 2050.

The goal is to create a city that runs completely on renewable energy for its buildings, transportation and infrastructure. Dongtan will recycle and reuse 90% of its waste, with hopes of eventually becoming a zero waste city. Here are some ways Dongtan plans to do that:
The Eco-City of Dongtan: A development outside of Shanghai
- All housing will be built within a seven minute walk of public transportation.
- Vehicles will be battery or fuel-cell powered.
- Nearby farmland will use organic methods to grow food for the city's population.
- A heat and power plant will supply energy by running on biomass in the form of rice husks, a waste product from local rice mills.
- Waste will be considered a resource.
- The city won't have a landfill and human sewage will be processed for energy recovery and composting.
- Buildings will have green roofs to improve insulation.
- Public transportation will include solar powered water taxis and hydrogen fuel-cell buses.