Image Credit: Bamboo Works
Key takeaways:
The waste-to-energy operator has filed for a Hong Kong listing to raise funds to develop its facilities after securing two major contracts in Kyrgyzstan
The company's profits surged in the first three quarters of last year, surpassing its full-year 2024 earnings
Turning trash into cash has become a big business in China, where nearly 720,000 tons of municipal waste are produced every day.
The heat from incinerating that mountain of waste has increasingly been converted into electricity, turning urban trash into an energy resource.
One of the big regional operators in the waste management business, Hunan Junxin Environmental Protection Co. Ltd. (301109.SZ), has now filed for a listing in Hong Kong as it seeks to expand its reach into central Asia.
The company operates across the waste-to-energy cycle, building and operating incineration plants, collecting treatment fees from local governments and selling electricity to the grid. This is a capital-intensive business, with big upfront investment needs and long payback periods, but it can over time generate a relatively predictable income stream.
Junxin makes around 60% of its money from waste disposal fees and up to 40% from sales of electricity. The company's approach differs from a common waste industry model that relies more heavily on one-off projects for designing and building plants or on equipment sales. Junxin operates more like a provider of public infrastructure, smoothing out cyclical risk through long-term contracts.
In 2024, the company's revenue jumped 31% to about 2.41 billion yuan ($350 million), while annual profit rose around 5% to 686 million yuan. But the pace picked up in 2025, as revenue rose 21.5% ...
