Mayor thanks Shanghai people for garbage sorting
The proportion of Shanghai's overall waste going into landfills dropped from 41.4 percent to 20 percent in 2019, Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong told the Shanghai People’s Congress on Wednesday at the opening of the congress’ annual session.
The mayor attributed the citywide mobilization and participation to the “quick and effective” launch of garbage-sorting rules which came into force on July 1 last year.
“We would like to give our thanks and respect to the people of Shanghai,” he said.
According to the mayor, the percentage of properly sorted garbage increased from 15 percent to 90 percent by the end of last year in residential areas. The amount of sorted recyclable waste, household food waste and hazardous waste went up by 431.8 percent, 88 percent and 504.1 percent respectively, while residual waste went down by 17.5 percent per day on average.
In the same report, Ying said Shanghai became cleaner, greener and tidier last year.
The average PM2.5 concentration stood at 35 micrograms per cubic meter in 2019, he said.
Last year, about 7,500 hectares of new forests were planted, equaling 10,700 soccer fields, and an additional 1,321 hectares of green space, 210.1 kilometers of urban green paths and 406,000 square meters of vertical landscaping were developed.
Housing improvement
According to the mayor, housing redevelopment continued to benefit Shanghai residents in 2019.
Ying said the government completed the renovation of 553,000 square meters of dilapidated houses in central districts for 29,000 households, retrofitted 11.84 million square meters of old housing units, renovated and preserved 1.04 million square meters of traditional Chinese terraced houses, and added 63,000 subsidized housing units of all types.
He added that the real estate market in Shanghai has maintained “steady and healthy development.”
In rural areas, the government promoted the concentrated housing of 12,800 rural households, transformed villages involving 70,000 households, and upgraded domestic sewage treatment facilities for 90,000 households last year, Ying said.