Beijing sees progress on garbage sorting

BEIJING -- Beijing has seen positive results from its mandatory garbage-sorting system, which was introduced in May, with more trash classified as kitchen waste, local authorities said Wednesday.

The amount of household kitchen waste collected daily in Beijing currently stands at 4,246 tonnes, 13 times more than the daily average in late April, said Zhang Yan, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management.

Meanwhile, the daily amount of other waste -- the trash besides the categories of kitchen, recyclable and hazardous -- is 16,100 tonnes, down 36.6 percent year on year, Zhang said.

Starting from May 1, Beijing joined a group of Chinese cities implementing mandatory garbage sorting in a bid to protect the environment.

Since the city's newly-revised household-waste regulation took effect, Beijing has required people to classify household waste into four categories: kitchen, recyclable, hazardous and other waste.

To comply with the regulation, the city has upgraded most of its waste-disposal stations and garbage trucks, according to Zhang.

Wen Tianwu, deputy chief of the Beijing Municipal Comprehensive Law-Enforcing Bureau of City Administration, said that, by the end of November, a total of 12,780 violations related to household-garbage classification had been investigated and penalized.