Shanghai need to improve waste services

Shanghai should give priority to dealing with toxic waste, and support paid services for collecting garbage, a member of the city’s political advisory body said on Monday.

“The volume of the city’s household waste surged from 2005 to 2011,” Yuan Wen, a member of the Shanghai committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said during the committee’s annual session.

The city produces more than 7 million metric tons of household garbage a year, or some 20,000 tons a day, according to the Shanghai environmental protection bureau’s data in 2011. That equates to more than a kilogram a day per person.

The city has been trying to promote waste classification in 2,130 communities, but little progress has been made.

“Many people just turn a deaf ear to our call to reduce the waste and classify it,” she said.

Yuan said authorities should allow companies to handle the waste.

“Based on our research, 60 percent of the citizens are willing to pay for waste collection,” she said.