The CEO of the largest waste management company in the world has one of the more unique answers to China's growing garbage problem.

"If you don't want garbage around you, why don't you eat your own garbage?" joked Jorge Mora, Asia CEO of Veolia Environnement.

For Mora, it was a joke to a very serious issue in China. As an executive at Veolia, which builds incineration plants and mainly builds landfills and landfill gas-to-energy plants in China, Mora has often heard the grumblings and opposition about incineration plants. It creates too much air pollutants, some say. Don't build it in my backyard, others say.

But in China, there has been very little progress in tackling how to recycle and sort garbage, coupled with the fact that there is also less and less available space for landfills. China overtook the United States in garbage output in 2004 and the amount of garbage has been rising at a clip of 8 to 10 percent a year.

Around 238 million tons of household garbage was produced in 2009 in China. The country's disposal facilities, according to China Association of Environmental Protection Industry (CAEPI), are capable of processing only 112 million tons.

Many in the garbage industry, such as Mora, are calling for more incineration plants. To them, burning waste materials is the viable way to go, though environmentalists are firmly opposed to the practice.

"It is not about whether you like (incineration plants) or not. There is just no way out," Mora said.

As the world's second-largest economy rapidly develops, consumption has skyrocketed. In its wake is an output of garbage that is building and building.