Beijing has started to carry out mandatory garbage-sorting to better protect the environment. XINHUA
If the three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) is a guideline to save the planet, garbage-sorting is where the efforts start.
如果说3R原则 —— 即减少原料(reduce)、重新利用(reuse)和物品回收(recycle) —— 是拯救地球的指导方针，那么垃圾分类则是这一切努力的开始。
Since May 1, Beijing has started to carry out mandatory garbage-sorting in new efforts to better protect the environment. Under the new regulation, residents are required to classify household waste into four categories: kitchen, recyclable, hazardous and other waste. People who fail to sort their garbage properly can be fined from 50 to 200 yuan, reported Xinhua.
为更好地保护环境，自5月1日起，北京市开始实施垃圾分类新规。根据新规，居民需将生活垃圾分为厨余垃圾、可回收物、有害垃圾、其他垃圾四大基本品类。据新华社报道，违反垃圾分类相关规定的，处50元以上200元以下罚款。
According to CGTN, online guidelines have been launched in order to instruct residents how to practice better waste management. If people don’t know how to sort the garbage, they can search for it on the WeChat account Guanchenglishi.
据中国国际电视台报道，北京市发布了在线指导，帮助市民们更好地进行垃圾处理。如果市民不清楚该如何进行垃圾分类，可以在微信公众号“管城理市”中进行查询。
Some residential communities in Beijing have introduced incentives to encourage residents to sort their garbage. According to Xinhua, residents can earn points by classifying their domestic waste correctly and then exchange the points they accumulate for daily necessities such as soap.
北京一些小区还推出了激励措施，鼓励居民进行垃圾分类。据新华社报道，居民们将生活垃圾正确分类便可获得积分，用于兑换肥皂等生活日用品。
And creative minds have even found some better solutions. Wei Li, a residential community director in the Haidian district, said her community had explored new ways of reusing kitchen waste as fertilizer for the residents’ rooftop garden.
一些有创意的人甚至找到了更好的方法。海淀区的一位社区党委书记魏立表示，其所在的社区探索了将厨余垃圾转化为居民天台花园肥料的新方法。
Garbage sorting practices have reached over 70 percent of housing estates in 18 cities, including Shanghai, Xiamen and Hangzhou, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
住房和城乡建设部表示，上海、厦门、杭州等18个城市生活垃圾分类居民小区覆盖率超过70%。
Shanghai first enacted a mandatory garbage-sorting regulation in July 2019 and has had a 90 percent compliance rate among its housing estates. The city’s daily amount of recyclable waste increased by 431.8 percent year on year in 2019, Xinhua reported.
上海于2019年7月首次颁布生活垃圾管理条例，居民生活垃圾分类达标率高达90%。据新华社报道，2019年，上海市平均每天全市可回收物增长431.8%。
According to a report by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, over 90 percent of the public believe that garbage-sorting is important for the protection of the environment.
据生态环境部发布的一份报告显示，超过90%的大众认为垃圾分类对环境保护很重要。
However, garbage-sorting is still a big problem in China. Only 30 percent of participants said they think they are adequately sorting their trash, the report noted.
但垃圾分类在中国依然是一大问题。该报告指出，只有30%的受访者认为自己充分地进行了垃圾分类。
According to Xinhua, it’s partly because many people lack the willingness to sort their own waste. Also, some previous garbage regulations didn’t include fines for people who failed to comply.
据新华社报道，这种情况某种程度上源于许多人缺乏垃圾分类的意愿。过去的一些垃圾分类条例也并未明确规定对混合投放垃圾者所处的罚款数额。
“It’s a must to have a legal guarantee to promote garbage-sorting,” Liu Jianguo, a professor from Tsinghua University, told China Daily.
“必须要有一套法律保障来推动垃圾分类，”清华大学教授刘建国在接受《中国日报》采访时表示。
Aside from China, many countries like Germany, Spain and Britain, also ask people to sort waste into specific categories. In Japan, there is a fixed time for the disposal of each kind of garbage and littering.
除中国外，德国、西班牙、英国等许多国家都要求民众将垃圾按照具体类别分类。日本还有处理每种垃圾的固定时间。
