Thousands fined for trash-related violations

Shanghai's urban management and law enforcement officials had imposed fines in thousands of cases since new household garbage-sorting rules took effect on July 1 last year, authorities revealed during a press conference on Thursday.

Among 9,585 cases, failure to sort and dispose of trash correctly (54.2 percent), failure to install proper garbage-sorting containers (41.2 percent) and random storage of trash (1.8 percent) were the top irregularities leading to fines, the Shanghai Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau announced.

The remaining cases concerned problems such as mixed collection and transportation, failure to report household waste according to regulations, improper transport of trash, garbage collection and transport without a license, leakage during transport and unclear signage, the bureau said.

In total, 7,472 cases concerned work units and the rest involved individuals, the bureau said.

Over the past year, urban management and law enforcement officials had made about 152,000 inspections covering residential complexes, shopping malls, businesses, universities, medical treatment institutions, tourist attractions and transport hubs.

They have ordered individuals and work units violating the garbage-sorting rules to rectify their practices in more than 38,000 cases. Among these, 29,425 involved work units, the bureau revealed.

"We will continue elevating garbage-sorting law enforcement toward a scientific, refined and intelligent orientation," Yan Yongkang, deputy director of the bureau, told the press conference.

"A blanket inspection covering about 13,000 residential complexes across the city will be conducted," he said. "Our inspections will particularly target old communities with frequent violations of trash sorting regulations, random disposal by residents, unclear signage of trash disposal containers at universities, mixed transport of garbage at wet markets, mixed disposal at medical treatment and health institutions, and improper placement of garbage disposal containers at transportation hubs," Yan explained.

A database of garbage sorting will be established, and digital supervision and management will be enhanced, said Yan.

Frequent violators who refuse to change their ways will have their information listed on the city's public credibility platform, and collection, transportation and treatment companies will have their service licenses revoked in serious cases, Yan said.

Garbage-sorting promotion will be deepened among groups such as tourists, tenants, young white-collar workers and small business operators to raise their awareness of waste sorting, said Yan.