Trash-sorting projects to expand

Trash-sorting projects to expand

• Source: Global Times
• [08:29 March 18 2011]
• Comments

By Xu Tianran

City authorities will hold a trash-sorting exhibition this May in a bid to better persuade citizens to separate their garbage.

The sorting system tested in 600 Beijing communities has been a success, said Chen Ling, vice director of the Commission of City Administration Thursday in a press conference. She modified that claim with an acknowledgement that citizens actually have a poor understanding of garbage sorting, and that the system's success has largely depended on re-sorting by sanitation workers.

One of those test communities is Hujialou Xili, in Chaoyang district, where three bins for recyclable, non-recyclable and other waste sit by building No 21.

"We all sort the garbage before dumping it," an elderly resident surnamed Ma said of herself and her friends. "But not everybody does this." She attributed their success at the project to "one guy in the residents' committee whose job is to check the bins and keep all the trash in the right bins."

But kitchen waste was visible in the recycling bin when this reporter took a peek Thursday evening.

Separating trash after it has been disposed unsorted is "huge work for sanitation workers and volunteers," Chen said.

"It's a long-term task to teach the general public to follow the rules. We need time and new ideas to promote garbage sorting," she added.

The 2011 Beijing Garbage Classification, Construction and Recycling Technology Exhibition is one such tactic to encourage trash separation awareness, and will be held from May 16 to 18 at the National Agriculture Exhibition Center.

During the conference, Chen said that another 1,200 communities would be included in the garbage-sorting project this year, raising the percentage of Beijing communities that sort garbage from 2010's 15 percent to 45 percent.