Rubbish idea: China’s fire-breathing drones are future of garbage disposal (VIDEO)

A utility company in Xiangyang, China has reportedly developed a novel, if terrifying, solution to garbage building up on local power lines: fire breathing drones.

Instead of wasting technicians’ time and a disproportionate amount of resources by sending a crew with a cherry picker to clear power lines manually, a properly equipped drone can take care of the problem in seconds and in spectacular fashion, as the video that was recently published on Chinese social media site QQ.com shows.

The drone can seemingly be controlled by two workers safely located on the sidewalk, avoiding possible electrocution by having to climb several feet into the air to remove the rubbish.

While it may be some time yet before we see such drones cleaning streets around the world, this isn’t the first firestarter drone we’ve seen.

In 2016, both the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) & NASA approved experiments in the US in which drones were also used to start controlled fires.

At the Homestead National Monument of America in Nebraska, researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln successfully ignited 26 acres (10.5 hectares) of long grass using drones that drop small spherical pellets which ignite soon after hitting the ground.

And, of course, there was the famous drone-cooked turkey from 2015. While drone-cooking hasn’t quite taken off yet, we live in hope.