City ramps up efficiency of home renovation waste disposal
A resident disposes of home renovation waste at Jichang residential complex in Changning District on Thursday.
Shanghai will enhance management of the disposal and collection of waste resulting from home decoration and renovation, authorities announced on Thursday.
More disposal options such as designated collection bins and temporary disposal spots, based on residents' opinions, will be offered at residential communities except the current exclusive decoration garbage collection sites, according to a notice released by Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau effective from Thursday.
When the collection bins are full, property service providers or those who dispose of the waste should contact collection companies to transport the trash away.
"The aim is to give residents flexible alternatives to cut the staying time of big pieces of trash at residential complexes and minimize its impact on the environment," said Huang Qiong, director of the bureau's public sanitation department.
"Many old residential complexes in the city don't have fixed disposal spots and decoration trash is dropped everywhere such as at greenery belts, leading to serious environmental problems," said Huang.
"Such disposals also cause inconvenience for garbage collection and transportation," she added.
A bin used to collect big pieces of decoration trash in Changning District
The whole disposal bins can be loaded onto trucks and returned when they are emptied.
"The traditional way of decoration trash collection triggers noise and environmental pollution, while the new one stamps out these concerns," said Huang.
A decoration waste collection and transportation service reservation platform will be promoted citywide as mentioned in the notification, enabling residents to make bookings via simple clicks on an app or mini program of WeChat.
At the same time, decoration waste collection service providers can get real-time information on the disposal of such trash and arrange proper routes, with the whole process available for tracking.
"It makes decoration trash disposal convenient for residents and allows companies to allocate their transport capacity reasonably based on the information received, improving collection efficiency," said Huang. "It also guarantees a tidy environment."
"It will significantly lift efficiency," she added.
Trials are being conducted at some residential complexes in districts like Changning, Xuhui, Baoshan, Jiading and Hongkou. At the Jichang residential complex in Changning, the trial started in April.
"The bins are 'moveable' and will be placed near residential buildings where there are households doing decoration," said a resident surnamed Xie, head of the property owner committee.
"The bins will alarm automatically once they are full, and we will then inform collection companies to take them away to empty," she said.
"In the past, residents and decoration workers dropped construction waste anywhere they wanted, leading to disputes in many cases," said Xie.
A bin with decoration waste is loaded onto a transportation truck at Leshan residential complex in Xuhui District on Thursday.
A bin with decoration trash in Xuhui District
At the Leshan residential complex in Xuhui District, a shared trash room with a volume of 6 cubic meters was upgraded in April and features an intelligent trash bin now.
Before upgrading, residents used to dispose of decoration wastes at unfixed spots where trash often piled up.
The intelligent trash bin can automatically sound alarms if trash overflows and can be tracked with its own positioning system.
"The garbage transportation truck often stayed long and choked the road, especially when parents were driving their kids to and from school and the road often smelt terrible," said a sanitation worker surnamed Zhang.
"But now, as the disposal, collection and transportation can be seen online through intelligent systems, the collection process is more efficient, and meanwhile some environmental problems like road dust are eliminated," he said.
Construction waste collection and transportation companies in the city are ordered to upgrade their trucks and enhance regular maintenance to prevent spillage and dust during transportation.
Local greenery authorities said they will enhance monitoring and management and violations by property management companies and collection companies will be listed in the city's credibility platform.
Crackdown on offences such as unlicensed collection, transportation and treatment of construction trash will be strengthened as well, the bureau said.
