Little headway made to sort out garbage

The longer they remain with us, the harder it gets to shrug them off. And residents of Yanji No. 7 community in Yangpu District are discovering just that.

A community effort to separate household kitchen wastes from the rest have few takers as most residents find it a troublesome exercise.

A household waste sorting machine put in place a week ago for processing kitchen wastes and converting them for biological use is hardly serving the purpose as very few residents are sorting their trash into wet and dry wastes.

Workers at garbage collection stations are still doing the sorting, despite a 2011 government-backed scheme to push residents into separating their household wastes. Most of them find it bothersome, forcing the community officials to think up of incentives to lure them into doing the job.

Separating the many elements found in waste streams is essential for minimizing the amount of garbage and those that serve recycling purposes.

A resident surnamed Wang said it was important for residents to develop a habit of sorting wastes. "Compared to people in the developed countries, we are still backward. Sorting can entail additional labor cost," he said.

The first machine that churns "wet" wastes into animal feed and fertilizer was installed inside an enclosed room amid fears that it would smell. But the residents continued to dump wastes into garbage drums. Station workers had to sort them out before putting them into the machine.

"Before the machine was installed, some of the residents were worried about the smell. But that thinking changed after seeing the waste generate into fertilizer within three hours without producing any odor," said Hong Yimin, a local community official. "To encourage more residents to do the needful, we are considering introducing a credit system for the best residents."

The community has 7,318 residents with 48 garbage drums that accumulate daily wastes that weighs between 6 to 8 tons. The sorting machine not only helps processing them but is also environment friendly for producing recycled fertilizer.

Experts claim that kitchen waste account for 80 percent of the total garbage collected. Sorting and processing them can help the city in achieving its target of reducing trash.

The city government hopes to reduce the amount of rubbish that needs to be processed by at least 20 percent next year and 50 percent by 2020.

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