It was a quarter to 9 am on Monday morning in an apartment complex in Shanghai's Minhang district. Several residents carried at least two plastic bags full of household waste, one containing wet waste and the other dry waste, and headed toward the apartment complex's designated waste sorting point, trying to throw away their garbage before 9 am. 

Zhang Yuewen and Zhou ­Chuanbiao, property management workers responsible for the apartment complex's garbage sorting and sanitation, were chatting with each other while keeping an eye on the residents coming to toss their garbage that they throw away the garbage in the right trash bins. Zhang and Zhou had been working on duty at that spot since 7 am when local residents are allowed to throw away their garbage every morning. 

Although there were around 30 trash bins placed outside the trash room, there were no strong stinky smells in the vicinity. However, just around one month ago, the trash room was a spot where almost no resident could bear the smell. 

Before Shanghai's new regulations on household garbage sorting and recycling were enacted on July 1, the trash bins placed right outside the buildings were scattered around the apartment complex. Plastic bags containing unsorted garbage always spilled out of the filthy trash bins and splattered on the ground. The odor was always so strong that residents often cast their bags of garbage from a distance instead of placing them into the bins, which often caused the bags to land on the ground. 

All the trash bins were moved to the two trash rooms set up in the apartment complex. There are no more filthy trash bins along the apartment complex walkways. 

Photo: VCG

New habits

It's not just that the environment of the local apartment complexes has improved over the past month, with Shanghai residents' active participation and the related departments' promotion, the quality of household waste classification in Shanghai has been steadily improved, according to Shanghai Landscaping and City Appearance Administrative Bureau. 

"In the past, some of my classmates threw Tetra Pak [carton packages] boxes into hazardous garbage trash bins and threw batteries into recyclable trash bins. But now, they dare not throw garbage arbitrarily," a pupil named Zhou Yufei said. 

The daily amount of recyclable waste in July increased by 10 percent from the previous month, and the amount of dry waste decreased by 11.7 percent, according to Shanghai Fabu, an official social media account of Shanghai Municipal People's Government. 

The figures echoed with local residents' feelings. "Since the new garbage sorting regulation was enacted, I think the frequency of throwing away garbage has increased. In the past, the wet garbage and the dry garbage were mixed up and we didn't throw away garbage every day," a resident living in the apartment complex said. 

Another resident thought that the new waste sorting regulations did not affect their daily life too much except that they have to walk a bit farther to throw away the garbage. "Previously there were trash bins near our building, but now, we have to walk to the trash room to throw away the garbage," she said. 

More workload

Since it takes time for the residents to form a new garbage sorting and disposing habit, it also adds to the property management's workload. 

According to Zhang, the trash bins' covers are closed except during the hours from 7 am until 9 am and from 6 pm until 8 pm, so some residents just throw their garbage outside the trash bins when there is no property management staff on duty at the trash room. 

According to the new regulation, residents can just throw the bags of dry garbage into the dry garbage trash bins, but they have to pour out wet garbage into wet garbage trash bins and throw the plastic bags into the dry garbage trash bins. It takes more effort and costs more time, and usually makes their hands dirty while emptying the plastic bags full of wet garbage. "So, if we are not near the trash bins, some residents just cannot throw away garbage properly. But when we stand nearby and say 'thank you,' the residents are too ashamed to throw garbage outside," Zhang said. 

As Zhang was talking, a resident was emptying a bag of wet garbage, which made his hands dirty. Zhang and Zhou had prepared a small bucket of water for residents to wash their hands. The construction of the trash bin room was not finished yet, and the installation of lights and tap water was also incomplete. 

Offspring benefit

According to Zhou, the trash bins are loaded full of garbage quickly. During the two periods, the residents are allowed to throw away garbage. But they still have to check the trash bins throughout the day. 

When the trash room's construction is finished, the trash bins will be placed inside the room and the room will be closed except during those two periods of time. 

"We are not sure if the residents will throw away garbage arbitrarily then," Zhou said, expressing his concerns. "Besides, we have to continuously patrol the apartment complex because a few residents who don't bother to walk to the trash room just throw their garbage on the walkway and other public areas near their buildings," Zhang said. 

But Xu Yuegen, a property management worker responsible for the sanitation of the walkways in the apartment complex, thinks that compared with the past, the environment of the walkways is much better. Xu's responsibility is cleaning up the fallen leaves and garbage on the walkways. 

"In the past, there were piles of garbage everywhere in the apartment complex. Now most residents can throw away their garbage at the designated spots," Xu said. 

In 2017, China's State Council set a goal that the country should realize a utilization rate of 35 percent in household garbage recycling by 2020, and 46 Chinese cities should take the lead in implementing mandatory classification of residential waste, according to a July report by Xinhua News Agency. 

Shanghai is a pilot city that can be beneficial for other cities to follow suit, according to a local resident surnamed Liu. 

"Besides, we can also learn from foreign countries which started implementing garbage sorting a long time ago," Liu said.

 

Two workers transport garbage in an apartment complex in Minhang district on Tuesday. Photo: Du Qiongfang/GT