[Shanghai] You Can Be Fined For Throwing Leftover Food In Public Rubbish Bins

[AhMeng]

Shanghai Releases New Garbage Sorting Guidelines – That’s Shanghai
www.thatsmags.com

This article originally appeared on our sister website, Urban Family Shanghai.
By Urban Family

The new garbage sorting regulations will take effect in Shanghai starting July 1. With less than one month left, many civilians are still confused about the classification of the four different types of trash. Thankfully, authorities have released an official guideline to clarify the new rules, reports Shine.

The guideline, published by the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau, provides a rather clear definition on the four kinds of waste: recyclable waste, hazardous waste, household food waste and residual waste.

Hazardous waste, as the name suggests, includes assorted poisonous materials like used batteries, light bulbs, expired medicines, paint, mercury thermometers and pesticides.

Image via The Paper
Household food waste – which is tranlated to ‘wet trash’ in Chinese – refers to food leftovers, rotten food, pet food, fruit peels, remains of TCM herbs and flowers.

Image via The Paper
Paper, plastic, glass, metal and textiles are counted as recyclable waste.

Image via The Paper
The definition of residual waste is a little confusing. Anything that is not listed above belongs in this category.

Image via The Paper

As specific as the new guideline is, residents still have a hard time sorting trash correctly and are finding it challenging to memorize them all. For instance, both plastic bottles and bubble tea or coffee cups are plastic materials. However, the former falls to the category of recyclable waste and the latter belongs to residual waste. To save the hassle, some netizens have come up with their own ways to sort trash.

“We should do this from a pig’s angle,” commented one netizen. “Those edible for pigs are household food waste. Those even pigs don’t want to eat are residual waste. If a pig consumes something and dies of it, then something must be hazardous waste. Those which can be sold and the money we gain can be used to purchase pigs are recyclable waste.”

The new regulation will go into effect on July 1. Those who do not sort their trash properly will be fined RMB200 (USD28.90).
[Cover image via The Paper]
This article was originally published by our sister magazine Urban Family Shanghai. For more articles like this, visit the Urban Family website, or follow the Urban Family WeChat account (ID: urbanfamilyshanghai).

 

[AhMeng]

You Can Now Be Fined for Throwing Leftover Food in Public Bins – Thatsmags.com
www.thatsmags.com

This article originally appeared on our sister website, Urban Family Shanghai.
By Urban Family

In a fast-paced city like Shanghai, it’s common for residents to finish their breakfast on their way to work and throw leftovers into public trash bins. But starting July 1, throwing your leftovers into public trash cans is going to cost you. Anyone who is caught breaking the new rule will be fined RMB50-200 (USD7.30-29.30), reports Sina.
According to the imminent garbage sorting regulation, public trash bins can only receive residual waste and recyclable waste.

READ MORE: Shanghai Releases New Garbage Sorting Guidelines

In other words, if you have a snack you can’t finish, you won’t be allowed to throw it into the bins located by the roadside or in Metro stations because food leftovers are counted as household food waste.

Image via NetEase
Meanwhile, if you have some coffee you don’t want to drink anymore, you won’t be able to get rid of it immediately, either. As the regulation states, cups and bottles have to be emptied before being thrown into garbage cans.

Any violation of the regulations could result in a fine. To avoid being punished, residents are suggested to bring food leftovers with them until they reach a place where a household food waste bin is available.

The goal of the new regulation is to create a cleaner environment. At the same time, it will also discourage people from eating on the Metro trains.

Image via The Paper
Despite the good intentions, a great number of netizens are less than thrilled about the new policy.

“Is it that hard to supply a third trash bin for household food waste?” asked one netizen.

“I think it is overcompensating,” commented another. “Why don’t they just close all the breakfast stands? Then there will be no food leftovers at all.”

The new garbage sorting regulation will come into full effect on July 1.

[Cover image via Pixabay]
This article was originally published by our sister magazine Urban Family Shanghai. For more articles like this, visit the Urban Family website, or follow the Urban Family WeChat account (ID: urbanfamilyshanghai).