Shanghai uses playing cards to promote garbage sorting

SHANGHAI - A community in Shanghai's Minhang district is using playing cards to help local residents easily understand how to sort garbage, as the city will enact a set of regulations on household garbage sorting and recycling from July.

The first 100,000 packs of playing cards have been issued by the Gumei community's environment service center. "Each card is printed with a category of garbage and some clauses of the regulations to allow residents master waste sorting through entertainment," said Niu Guangcheng with the center.

The spades represent dry refuse, the hearts for hazardous waste, clubs for wet trash, while the diamonds are printed with recyclable garbage.

Trash bins equipped with intelligent voice prompt systems have also been placed in certain parts of the district. These trash bins have inductive probes and can remind the residents to sort out the wastes after inputting their house number. They will be awarded with credits, which can be used to redeem gifts such as tissue and toothpaste.

"We hope that waste classification can become a spontaneous habit for every individual," said Zhang Weilin, a local official.