In Putuo, garbage sorting goes high-tech

The city’s first garbage room equipped with 5G telecommunication technology will be promoted to help supervise local garbage-sorting practices.

The 5G-equipped garbage storage room in Meilingyuan neighborhood of Putuo’s Caoyang Community, the city’s first workers’ community dating back to the 1950s, can automatically open and close its doors according to the city’s garbage disposal hours.

An alert will be triggered when garbage bins are full, and a surveillance camera can help supervise sorting. The data, including the weight of each category of garbage, will be collected for analysis.

“The 5G and artificial intelligence technologies can effectively help promote and monitor the garbage sorting in Putuo,” an official with the district’s greenery authority told legislators in Putuo. “Such practices will be further promoted.”

Sui Dingzhong, a lawmaker and headmaster of No. 4 Middle School Affiliated to East China Normal University, proposed incorporating more technologies to improve the city’s efficiency of garbage-sorting promotion.

Another intelligent garbage room in Ganquan Road Subdistrict has been connected with Putuo’s smart urban management system.

Putuo also plans to install additional kitchen waste treatment equipment, mainly at companies, industrial parks and office buildings. Such equipment has been installed in seven district wet markets.

Seven out of the 10 subdistricts and towns in Putuo have been listed as demonstration areas for the new garbage-sorting promotion. The district plans to further expand the garbage-sorting coverage to over 95 percent of its neighborhoods and companies. Over 90 percent of subdistricts and towns in Putuo will become demonstration areas by the end of the year, said Jiang Dongdong, director of Putuo.