Shanghai expands garbage sorting plan

Shanghai is requiring an additional 400,000 households to sort their garbage and is opening 2,000 electronic waste recycling centers this year as part of efforts to reduce the amount of garbage produced in the city.

The city is also formally implementing new household garbage reduction measures on May 1 that were approved earlier this year. Under the new measures, garbage will be divided into four categories: recyclable materials, hazardous waste, wet waste and dry waste. Residents will be required to sort their garbage based on these categories.

The addition of 400,000 households who have to sort their garbage will bring the total number to nearly 2.45 million. By the end of 2013, 2.05 million households were required to sort their garbage. The plan has reduced the amount of daily garbage to 0.7 kilograms per capita from 0.82 kg, according to the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau.