Malls, offices fail at garbage sorting

Shopping malls and office buildings had the worst performance in waste sorting since July 1 when Shanghai's new household garbage-sorting management regulations went into effect, the city's urban management and law enforcement authorities said on Wednesday based on monthlong inspections. 

Officials imposed fines in 872 cases of violating the regulations. Among them, individuals in 74 cases were fined. 

Of the total, 451, or 51.8 percent, were related to failure to install garbage-sorting containers, and 396, or 45.4 percent, for failure to sort and dispose of trash correctly, the Shanghai Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau said. 

Fourteen were about randomly stacking household garbage, and two cases regarded irregularities in collecting and transporting household garbage, according to the bureau.

Another two concerned mixing construction waste with household trash, and six were over failure to report household waste based on regulations.

One was about a collection and transportation company's failure to establish a record of household waste, according to the bureau.

In 8,655 cases, rectification notices were issued, of which 2,293 involved individuals. 

A total of 18,100 inspections targeting household garbage sorting were conducted citywide during July, covering 34,985 units including residential complexes, catering businesses, hotels, shopping malls, office buildings, hospitals, schools and training institutions, industrial parks, government authorities and more than 18,000 individuals, according to the bureau. 

People found with garbage-sorting irregularities in 13,506 cases, involving both working units and individuals, were educated, according to the bureau.

A total of 490 collection and transportation companies were inspected in July, and 20 were found with 68 irregularities.

Among them, 54 problems, or 79.4 percent of all irregularities, were related with mixed transportation, and the rest were about garbage scattering and leakage, failure to install monitoring systems on transport vehicles, signage problems and failure of enclosed transportation, according to the bureau.

In the first month of the regulations, shopping malls and office buildings had the worst performances, with an incidence of irregularities of 50.9 percent, followed by catering businesses and enterprises at 26.5 percent, the bureau said based on its inspections. 

The incidence of household waste-sorting irregularities at industrial, scientific and innovation parks was 24.3 percent, and it was 23.4 percent for hotels. 

For schools and training institutions, it was 17.7 percent, with 13.8 percent for residential complexes and 10.9 percent for hospitals, according to the bureau.

Although big shopping malls and office buildings were at the bottom of waste sorting, inspections in late July found they had improved a lot from early and mid-July, according to the bureau. 

The incidence of garbage-sorting problems at shopping malls and office buildings was 39.8 percent in late July, a drop of 16.8 percent from early and mid-July, the biggest decrease among all, according to the bureau. 

Schools and training institutions had the largest increase of incidence between early and late July, reaching 11 percent, the bureau said. 

Inspections at large shopping malls, office buildings, schools and training institutions which had the worst performances in household waste sorting or a surge of irregularities will be beefed up, according to the bureau.

Inspections targeting residents and companies randomly dumping or stacking trash, particularly streetside catering businesses and shops dropping kitchen waste into bins in public areas which are only for dry and recyclable garbage will also be enhanced, the bureau said. 

In August, checks on the treatment of domestic garbage will be enhanced, targeting 10 big garbage transit companies and 10 treatment enterprises in the city to crack down on mixed compression and treatment of already-sorted garbage, according to the bureau.

People in Shanghai can be fined up to 200 yuan (US$29) under the new regulations if they fail to sort garbage properly and refuse to fix the problem.

Enterprises can be fined up to 5,000 yuan for failing to have the right trash bins in place, and up to 50,000 yuan for failure to sort waste if they refuse to rectify their mistakes.

Meanwhile, 8,200 tons of wet trash were sorted out daily on average between July 1 and 26, and it was 17,100 tons for dry garbage, compared with 6,950 tons and 19,370 tons in June respectively, the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau announced on Wednesday. 

It meant more wet trash has been sorted out instead of mixed with dry trash, officials said.