When Shanghai introduced a new garbage-sorting policy (垃圾类政策) in July last year, the city's residents (居民) took some time to get used to it. They joked that every time they took out their garbage, the staff (工作人员) standing by the bins would ask, "What kind of garbage are you?"
Starting on May 1, Beijing joined many Chinese cities by introducing a new garbage-sorting policy, People's Daily reported. Residents should sort their garbage into four groups: kitchen, recyclable, hazardous (有害的) and other waste.
These groups are represented (代表) by four different colors of trash bins—green, blue, red and gray. Those who fail to sort their trash correctly may be fined up to 200 yuan, Xinhua reported.
Some cities like Shanghai and Qingdao sort their trash differently. These cities use four different groups: wet, recyclable, harmful and dry. Although their names are different, the groups are actually the same. In fact, wet garbage in Shanghai is kitchen garbage in Beijing. And dry garbage is the same as other waste, China Youth Daily reported.
To help residents sort their trash correctly, the Beijing government is offering online guidelines (指导). If people don't know how to throw away garbage, they can search for it on the WeChat account Guanchenglishi (管城理市) to find out. By searching a keyword or taking a photo, people can immediately find out which group their waste belongs to.
