1,279 fines imposed over garbage-sorting issues
The city's urban management and law enforcement authorities had imposed 1,279 fines by August 15 after Shanghai's new household garbage-sorting management regulations went into effect on July 1, officials said on Saturday.
Among them, 649, or 50.7 percent, were related to failure to sort and dispose of trash correctly, while 45.8 percent regarded failure to install garbage-sorting containers, the Shanghai Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau said.
Twenty were about randomly stacking household garbage, and six cases regarded irregularities in collecting and transporting household garbage, according to the bureau.
Seven related to failure to report household waste based on regulations, and four were over mixing construction or medical waste with domestic garbage.
The rest were about failure to establish a record of household waste, collecting and transporting household trash without a license and failure to handle household garbage based on regulations.
In 10,539 cases, rectification notices were issued, of which 2,475 involved individuals, according to the bureau.
People found with garbage-sorting irregularities in 15,591 cases, involving both working units and individuals, were educated.
On Saturday morning, officials from the Pudong New Area Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau conducted an inspection, and the Jinchen Property Management Co Ltd was issued a rectification notice for failure to dispose of household garbage in the right bins and mixed transportation of dry and wet trash.
Dry and wet garbage was spotted inside the same vehicle for wet trash.
At a construction site on Haike Road, the Shanghai Construction No.1 (Group) Co Ltd was also issued a notice for container irregularities and mixed disposal.
All the garbage bins at the construction site were red, which should be used for hazardous wastes, and lunch boxes were found inside bins for different types of trash, officials found.
A water bottle was found inside a bin for dry trash. It should have been put into the recycling bin, officials said.
"The colors of these bins are not right, and serious mixed disposal was found," said Qiao Yanfei, an official with the bureau. "Some workers lack awareness of garbage sorting and they throw lunch boxes randomly."
More than 25,000 inspections targeting household garbage sorting have been conducted citywide since July 1, covering 50,912 units including residential complexes, catering businesses, hotels, shopping malls, office buildings, hospitals, schools and training institutions, industrial parks, government authorities as well as more than 23,000 individuals, according to the bureau.
A total of 672 collection and transportation companies were inspected.
In addition, a total of 584 cases regarding irregularities in handling kitchen wastes were uncovered.
In the first half of this month, a total of 15,927 working units were inspected citywide, and 2,510 problems were spotted, according to the bureau.
Among them, 1,089 concerned failure to sort and dispose of trash correctly, accounting for 43.4 percent of the total, and 762 regarded failure to install proper garbage-sorting containers, accounting for 30.4 percent of the total.
Among the 381 cases in which fines were imposed, 236 related to failure to sort and dispose of trash correctly, accounting for 61.9 percent of the total and an increase of 18.6 percent from the first half of July, and 128 over failure to install garbage-sorting containers, a drop of 20.5 percent from the same period in July.
Shopping malls and office buildings had the worst performances, with irregularities found in 27.8 percent of them, followed by catering businesses at 20.2 percent.
The number of incidents of irregularities of enterprises in terms of household garbage sorting was 19.8 percent, and 19.4 percent for hotels and 14.9 percent for industrial, scientific and innovation parks.
Household waste-sorting irregularities at residential complexes were 10.5 percent, and 8.6 percent for schools and training institutions, and 5.7 percent for hospitals.
Small businesses and shops had 16.2 percent of irregularities, according to the bureau.
Public venues, catering businesses, and small shops still had serious problems of non-standard signs of sorting containers, failure of correct disposal, leakage of garbage and mixed transportation of trash, and inspections and management targeting them will be enhanced, the bureau said.
The bureau said it would conduct a second round of inspections targeting industries with high incidences of problems and garbage treatment enterprises.
Transport hubs, tourist attractions and commercial areas with busy traffic will also be targeted.
Irregularities like mixed transportation, leakage and unclear signs will be targeted.
Surveillance cameras and patrols will be used to collect proof to spot irregularities of failed sorting and secret disposal, the bureau said.