Sort garbage, get rewards

The push for garbage classification has advanced sluggishly and mostly fruitlessly in much of China, but Beijing is adopting an innovative way to try and encourage the practice in the capital.

At a recent news briefing, Beijing's sanitation department said the capital will popularize the sorting of garbage through the application of quick response codes. Under the new system residents who register for an account on China's most popular instant messaging app, WeChat, will receive reward points that they can swap for commodities and even cash when they sort their garbage.

The system has been successfully piloted in some residential areas, and is due to be extended to 350 residential communities covering more than 1 million residents next year.