Greater public participation needed to sort garbage correctly

Chinese garbage collectors deliver residential waste to a new recycling trash depot, which proudly encourages residents to recycle, in Beijing on February 9, 2014. [Photo/IC]

Residents will be fined 50 yuan maximum and organizations not more than 50,000 yuan for not throwing rubbish correctly in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong province，according to a newly-revised regulation issued by the local authority, New Express reported.

The regulation will take effect on Sep. 1 this year. An official with the local city planning management sector said that the organizations that fail to correctly dispose of garbage will be fined in the grace period, but individuals violating the rules will not be punished.

Property management companies voiced their worry over the effective implementation of the regulation, saying that they can only encourage or persuade residents to put waste in the right places but they are not able to fine the violators. They have to pay more money to hire cleaners to relocate the rubbish to the right places, which means the property management fees will accordingly rise.

Currently the law enforcement department is only responsible for supervising whether the waste in the residential areas is correctly disposed, and as for how to require individuals to handle garbage classification, it is up to the property management companies.

This seems to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of different parties, but the lack of public participation might undermine the intentions of the garbage-sorting campaign.

The garbage classification law is something new in China, and the relevant government departments should pay more attention to raising public awareness to deal with garbage correctly instead of simply imposing harsh punishments on them.