China to promote household garbage sorting nationwide

BEIJING - China on Friday vowed all-out efforts to promote classification of household garbage nationwide.

The country will invest 21.3 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) in the construction of garbage processing facilities to meet demand, Zhang Lequn, an official with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told a press conference.

Household garbage processing systems are being built in 46 pilot cities, which have also been equipped with nearly 5,000 kitchen waste carriers and 1,000 hazardous waste carriers, he said.

By 2025, all Chinese cities at or above the prefecture level, totaling more than 300, shall complete the building of garbage sorting and processing systems, according to an official circular issued earlier this month.

About 38.3 percent Chinese households were practicing garbage sorting in 2018, up 11.4 percent from a year earlier, according to a survey done by the Development Research Center of the State Council last year.