With September just around the corner, the clock is ticking on Nanjing’s ambitions to have segregated rubbish recycling in place citywide by year end. Much progress has been made, but there remains a lot of work to be done.
Yesterday, 26 August, local media reported on progress being made in Nanjing’s Pukou District to implement the directive that is “Key Tasks of Rubbish Classification in Nanjing City in 2020”. Such have deeply promoted rubbish classification work in residential areas, strengthened classification management and control and actively promoted the construction of rubbish classification collection points.
Domestic waste sorting and collection points in urban residential areas are divided into two types, namely class I and class II. A class I collection point should be no less than no less than 20 square metres in size and be capable of serving 300-500 households. It should be a standalone facility easily accessible by rubbish collection vehicles and ancillary utility providers.
Class II collection points offer many of the same features and connectivity, but are smaller, at 6-10 square metres, serving no more than 200 households.
Nanjing’s Pukou District has to date set up 14 out of a required 16 class I collection points, reported Longhoo yesterday.
This is where the math doesn’t add up. With a population of over 710,298 in the 2010 census (the figure today is nearer 1.5 million), Pukou would likely need not 16, but up to 300 class I collection points to serve everyone.
No matter the accuracy of local reporting, quite how this will be achieved by year end is anyone’s guess.
However, credit where credit is due. Across much of Nanjing can now found disposal facilities offering rubbish segregation, sorted by kitchen waste, recyclable materials, residual (other) waste and hazardous waste.
Yet, their implementation is haphazard at best. The Nanjinger visited several such facilities and found that none offered the entire compliment of four kinds of rubbish bins. More often than not, only two of the four were available, while the incidence of bins for recyclable materials is very low.
Back in Pukou, directives call for there being at least one bin in each community for hazardous waste.
Then there is the issue of public education as to the ways to classify waste, and its very reason for being. Authorities in the Changlu Sub District of Jiangbei New Area, for example, have recently included waste classification as part of their key duties and have constantly increased publicity that calls on the citizens to participate in rubbish classification.
On 4 August, children’s rubbish sorting activities were held in the Sub District. Different games helped children to grasp the importance of rubbish classification in an enjoyable way and imperceptibly develop a habit for such.
In addition, volunteers have put up public notices in residential communities, and gone door to door in communities and villages to make every citizen clear about the importance of rubbish classification, in hopes of establishing the correct environmental awareness.
But are all these efforts enough?
Comparisons can be drawn between the hopes for rubbish classification and the lip service being paid to commitments to eliminate the use of non-degradable bags. In the new law that enters force on 1 September, markets selling fresh produce are exempt, and this is exactly where the bulk of China’s single-use bags are to be found.
Rubbish classification may well end up going a similar way.
