A screenshot showing a resident using the smart garbage bin in a residential area in Baoshan, Shanghai Photo: thepaper.cn

Shanghai, the first Chinese mainland city to implement a compulsory garbage classification regulation in July, is using intellectual platforms that can count the amount of garbage residents dump to enhance recycling. 

A residential area in Shanghai's Baoshan district is using 10 sets of such smart bins, local news site thepaper.cn reported.

Through data shown on the screen, staff of the platform will know the amount of garbage collected and when and who dumped them, thepaper.cn reported on Thursday.

The smart bin can also help social workers. For example, for elderly people living alone, a social worker will go to their home to check if the elderly people failed to dump garbage. 

The "green fortune card" issued in 2016 by Shanghai environmental authorities is the premise of the big data platform. 

The card is meant to encourage daily garbage sorting and to build an eco-friendly way of life in the city, according to the city government's website.

Residents can swipe the card after selecting the waste type on a screen above the smart bins, and the bin will open automatically. After the trash is dumped, residents will receive corresponding points which they could exchange for small gifts.

The city government said more than 7.28 million Shanghai families have joined the project, and 6.31 million cards have been distributed.

Residents and experts hailed the use of high-tech equipment in garbage recycling, saying it is more convenient than expected. 

But proper garbage disposal and infrastructure construction should catch up to avoid such a good idea from becoming a formalism project, Luo Yameng, a Beijing-based urban-planning and eco-city expert, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

In the future, the community's management company would also issue garbage bags attached with QR codes, which would make it convenient for management departments to track residents who break garbage recycling regulations, thepaper.cn reported. 

The Global Times reporter found that similar measures have been applied in some areas in Beijing, which is drafting its own garbage recycling regulations.
Newspaper headline: Smart devices help Shanghai sort garbage