City hands out 7,662 fines over garbage-sorting violations

Shanghai's urban management and law enforcement authorities had imposed fines in 7,662 cases over irregularities as of April after new household garbage-sorting rules took effect on July 1 last year, officials said on Tuesday.

Failure to sort and dispose of trash correctly (60.9 percent), failure to install proper garbage-sorting containers (35.2 percent) and mixed collection and transportation (1.6 percent) were the top irregularities, the Shanghai Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau said.

The remaining cases concerned problems such as failure to report household waste according to regulations, random storage of trash and unclear signage.

The bureau said the city's urban management and law enforcement authorities have kicked off a three-month crackdown since mid May, targeting violations in garbage sorting and disposal, collection and transportation, and treatment.

Inspections and enforcement on problems such as mixed disposal of different types of garbage and leakage during transportation will be beefed up.

Between July and April, the city's urban management and law enforcement officials had made 123,000 inspections covering about 13,000 residential complexes, 230 household trash collection and transportation enterprises, 10 household garbage-transit sites, nine household waste treatment companies as well as catering businesses, shops, office buildings, shopping malls, hospitals, tourist attractions, education and training institutions, transport hubs, and individuals.

In about 30,000 cases, individual or working unit violators were ordered to rectify their practices, including around 22,500 involved working units, the bureau said.

A total of 1,420 cases concerning violations in handling kitchen waste and waste oil, and 5,242 cases of batteries, cigarette butts, beverage cans and fruit peel were also spotted.