Wissen

Garbage Sorting in China

Image: Wantchinatimes.com

With the ever-increasing amount of garbage piling up at a speed exceeding the capacities of landfills and incinerators in a short future, the Chinese authority now seeks to deal with the problem from the source. Garbage Sorting has started already in the big cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen in some local communities, only this time the implementation would come with strict regulations and penalties.

Making it mandatory

Image: nipic.com

There are 4 categories of garbage: recyclable waste, kitchen waste, harmful waste and other wastes respectively.

The earlier garbage sorting campaigns carried out in some selected communities in cities like Beijing and Shanghai as trial projects did not show much success as residents still lack the initiatives and a sense of sorting their wastes as a must. To raise the effectiveness, the government was considering the possibilities to make it mandatory alongside with a series of penalty for those who do not dispose of their waste properly according to the regulation.

Shenzhen - first on the list

"Garbage Mountain" in China Image: new.qq.com

Shenzhen was the first on the list. In this populous city in the south, daily domestic waste reaches 1.4 Ton which means the amount of waste disposal for one week can pile up as a 24-floor building, according to a committee from the authority. The landfills and incinerators dealing with wastes are to be exceeding their capacities shortly. Difficulties to decide on the locations for building new ones due to the long argument among the locals is a strong reason for the government to implement mandatory garbage sorting in full scale within the city as soon as possible.

With the regulation coming into force in Guangzhou from 1.April, those who are caught failed to put their garbage into the right bin will be fined up to 50Yuan (approx. 5Euro). For companies which fail to do so, a penalty of 500Yuan (50Euro) per m3 will be fined. As for the property management companies which do not place the bins at the designated area will be fined up to even 30,000Yuan (3000Euro).

The promotion and education of garbage sorting had started in April to familiarize the citizens with the system and penalty has become effective from May on wards. City management officers, neighborhood committee personnel, community property management staff as well as volunteers will be trained to promote waste sorting among the public.

The effectiveness, however, has yet to be improved. The problems include a lack of appropriate bins for sorting, while some bins were filled with wastes of wrong categories etc. Also the concept of refuse sorting is rather unfamiliar for the general residents. It would be hard for them to adapt to it within such a short time, facing the chances of being fined.

What's next?

Signs with promotional slogans in Shanghai Image: Sheedl/ flickr

Shanghai seeks to launch the system in 2015 with the support and experiences of Taiwan in which the idea of garbage sorting has already become a part of everyone’s daily life. Apart from cities, garbage sorting systems will possibly start in some villages, as suggested by the newly drafted refuse management proposal of Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province of southwestern China; though temporarily planned just as a trial scheme.

The feasibility would depend, as any other garbage sorting schemes, heavily on the awareness of the locals and the user-friendliness of the system. After all, a change in people’s consuming behaviour is necessary for reducing waste in the first place to keep the waste management sustainable in the long-run.