Alizee Buysschaert, the founder of Zero Waste Shanghai, has received many messages about trash sorting(分类)in the past month. She said, "Almost everyone I talk with asks me about trash sorting. Even last night when I was in a bar, I heard people talking about how they should sort their trash. When I first came to Shanghai in 2014, people were not fully aware of trash sorting, and everything went in one bin, but things change so quickly. "
Shanghai became the first city in China to carry out its strictest-ever trash sorting rules on July 1st, 2019. They require every family and office to sort theirtrash into four kinds —recyclable waste, harmful waste, wet waste and dry waste. Individuals(个人)who fail to sort trash face fines(罚款)of up to 200yuan(about $30). Companies can be fined up to 50, 000 yuan.
There has been a heated discussion about trash sorting online. Some people praise Shanghai for being a role model in solving the trash problem, while others think it brings inconvenience to their daily lives, and make jokes about sorting their trash.
One of the most popular jokes goes, "Think about pigs before sorting your trash —things pigs can eat go to wet waste, things pigs don't eat are dry waste, things pigs might die from while eating them are harmful, and things that can be sold for money to buy a pig belong to recyclable waste. "
Xiao Guiyu, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, said, "Although it's a joke, it makes everyone understand the key of trash sorting easily. "As for the inconvenience, the government replied that the new rules are laws, and just like traffic rules, people have to learn to keep it as long as they live in Shanghai.
