Jing'an releases a white paper on waste sorting
Jing’an District, dotted with old residences and modern apartments, has drafted a white paper to address waste-sorting issues that concern grassroots officials.
The white paper, released on Saturday, specifies that trash bins for recyclable, hazardous, residual and household food waste should be placed at every dumping site.
At other public venues, trash bins for residual and household food waste should appear as a set, with percentage of 1:1 or 2:1.
“Many residents complain that they don’t have enough trash bins for residual waste, and therefore we will adjust the percentage to address the problem,” said Cao Qian, director of the sanitation management section of the district’s greenery authority.
The "designated spot, designated time" dumping system has troubled many grassroots officials.
The system aims to improve the effectiveness of waste sorting as volunteers will be available to help residents.
Officials say it‘s hard to decide where to put the site and to determine hours.
According to the white paper, in residential complexes formed by buildings built with six floors or below, every 300 families will have such a site.
In residential complexes formed by buildings built higher than six floors, it is proper to set a dumping site for every 500 families.
The dumping site should be open at least four hours per day.
To cater for shift workers, local officials can set up a temporary dumping site. This will be equipped with cameras or other modern technology to ensure correct waste sorting.
“We want everyone to take part in waste sorting, therefore we have to make it as convenient as possible," Cao said. "We don’t want to impose strict restrictions to force people to change their habits."
In many modern apartment buildings, trash bins are now accessible on every floor.
In some old residential complexes with narrow alleyways, there will be “mobile trash bins.”