City airports begin implementing garbage sorting

Wang Bingyi / Ti Gong

Shanghai's two airports have reduced the number of trash bins by a third and replaced the rest with sorted bins to implement the city’s first domestic garbage management regulations that will take effect from Monday.

The terminals at Pudong and Hongqiao international airports handle about 300,000 passengers every day and generate over 120 tons of garbage.

Collecting and transporting garbage at the airports that have a large number of businesses based in the terminals is complicated, the Shanghai Airport Authority said.

It announced over the weekend that both airports have begun implementing rubbish classification to meet the city's standards.

The number of trash bins at the airports have been reduced 31 percent to 1,857. Garbage collection sites have also been cut 36 percent to 83, the airport authority said.

The remaining sorted trash bins have been placed around the eateries and areas with large crowds at the terminals. Multilingual notices have been posted to guide passengers from both home and abroad to dump garbage into the designated bins correctly.

Young staff with the airport authority have organized a volunteer team to promote garbage-sorting knowledge and guide passengers with the "new fashion," the airport authority said.

Garbage will be sorted into four types — household food waste, residual waste, hazardous waste and recyclable waste.

All the restaurants at the terminals, which create most of the food waste at the airports, have been ordered to install oil-water separators.

Specialized sealed bins have been handed out to the eateries to transport kitchen waste.

Restaurants at the airports are also banned from providing customers with four disposable tableware items unless requested, including plastic forks and spoons and chopsticks.

Passengers must obey the new regulations from Monday, or face fines and other administrative punishments.

Yu Yang / Ti Gong

Ti Gong