This Day, That Year: garbage recycling

Item from July 26, 1999, in China Daily: A woman puts a bag of litter into a bin at a categorized gabarge collection center in her neighborhood in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

In recent years, the city has promoted the garbage classification system and built many such centers in an effort to protect the environment.

Although garbage classification is not a new concept to most Chinese, in many cities it is a failure due to a lack of supervision and low public awareness.

In 2000, eight cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, became the first batch of cities to pilot waste sorting schemes.

Last year, Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, Shanghai and Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, introduced local regulations that promised to fine rule-breakers up to 200 yuan ($30).

Last year, Chinese households produced 250 million metric tons of waste, of which just 80 million tons was recycled, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. The volume of waste is expected to grow at between 7 and 10 percent annually in large cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai.

In the country's 13th Five Year Plan (2016-20), authorities emphasized the need to improve the recycling program. The plan also calls for boosting the waste classification system.

A community worker teaches children on garbage sorting in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, on June 1, 2016. [Photo/IC]