Govt debates trash sorting guides

The Legislative Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government held a hearing Wednesday on household garbage reduction and sorting, in which participants discussed ways to persuade more residents to sort their trash.

While most participants agreed that households should be sorting their garbage into four groups, they disagreed over whether it was necessary to assign people to teach residents how to properly sort their trash.

One of the major challenges is that many residents are unwilling to sort their trash, so several participants suggested that the government assign workers to teach residents how to separate their food waste from plastics, glass and other recyclables.

"It is necessary to have people at the beginning of the campaign who can guide local residents because it is unrealistic to expect that they will immediately get in the habit of sorting their trash," said Wu Renyong, secretary-general of the Shanghai City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Association.

Wu said these people could also step in to further sort recyclables if residents don't do it themselves, which could help reduce the cost of garbage disposal later.

However, some participants disagreed with having people help residents sort their garbage because it was unclear how these people could play a role in promoting garbage sorting.

"The major problem with having people sort garbage for residents is that it encourages residents to be lazy because they have someone to do the work for them," said Dai Xingyi, a professor from the environmental science and engineering department at Fudan University.

Dai said that the point of sorting garbage is to make residents understand that maintaining a good environment is everyone's business. "In a civil society, citizens have both rights and responsibilities," Dai said. "One can't simply enjoy the benefits brought by others without making any contribution."

Dai also pointed out that the government regulations might lack the mandatory force to punish violators.

"If we look at the laws and regulations in other countries where garbage sorting is carried out well, they usually have strict laws that punish violators," Dai told the Global Times.