At 7 p.m., Wu Qingbao skillfully classified household garbage into residual waste and food waste and put them into the garbage dump of Ruihong Xincheng Phase II Community, Jiaxing Road Sub-district, Hongkou. “It is my habit of disposing of all kitchen waste and residual waste after dinner every day,” said Wu.
More than four years ago, when General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the No.1 Branch of Jiaxing Road Sub-district Citizen Service Station in Hongkou District, he said that waste sorting is a new fashion. Now, waste sorting has become a habit of the Hongkou people.
Everyone participates in and benefits from waste sorting.
On May 21, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote a letter to encourage waste sorting volunteers in Jiaxing Road Sub-district, Hongkou District, Shanghai.
For the residents, the obvious change after the implementation of waste sorting is the improvement of environmental sanitation in the community. Wu Qingbao said that there were garbage bins on each floor of the residential area. "It was convenient, but when it's getting hot, the smell is particularly strong and there are many mosquitoes and bugs.”
When the community implemented the policy of removing the bins and placing them at fixed places and at regular intervals, Wu Qingbao, as one of the first batch of waste sorting volunteers, once stood by the bins every day to give guidance and publicity to the residents. Now there is no need to stand guard next to the trash bin. Residents can voluntarily sort and dispose of garbage, and the corridors are much cleaner. Wu said that every building has volunteers to promptly clean it or notify cleaners to handle it if they see scattered garbage or food waste leaking in the elevator. Besides, they will at the same time remind neighbors through the WeChat groups.
The benefits of waste sorting go beyond that. According to Wu Qingbao, there are two ATRenew intelligent recycling machines in the community, and the recyclable materials thrown in them can be monetized.
It is learned that at present, many communities in Hongkou District have such intelligent recycling machines. Residents can use their mobile phones to scan the codes on the machines and put recyclable materials into them to achieve automatic classification, automatic weighing, and automatic point collection. With enough points, you can withdraw money via WeChat.
Hong Kong Liyuan Community, a residential quarter in Jiaxing Road Sub-district, has teamed up with companies to launch crowdfunding through intelligent recycling machines, set up disc pools at the community activity center, and added eco-friendly seating for the children's playground in the community. "These benefits are exchanged by residents with their waste sorting points, and we all like and cherish them very much," said Li Min, a resident of the community.
With the popularization of waste sorting, environmental protection creativity in residential areas is emerging endlessly. On the garbage collection house in Jin'er Community, Liangcheng Xincun Sub-district, there is a rainwater collection box. After purification, the collected rainwater can be used for residents to wash their hands, allowing low-carbon environmental protection concepts to be subtly integrated into people's lives.
Long-term efforts have made "new fashion" popular.
The cultivation of habits is not achieved overnight. Yutai Jingyuan is the first waste-sorting pilot community in Jiaxing Road Sub-district. Xu Zhengdong, secretary of the General Party Branch of Hongye Residential Area, recalled that some residents did not understand when the community started to implement the policy of removing garbage bins and placing them at regular intervals. “We conducted thorough research in the early stage and held meetings with Party group leaders and building leaders to discuss and study the plan for removing the bins," said Xu Zhengdong, "The neighborhood committee gathered a group of waste sorting volunteers who were enthusiastic about public welfare, who did a good job of garbage sorting and guidance, food waste bags removing and other work at the garbage sorting sites around the clock. At the same time, the residents were sent a" three-piece set" from door to door, including a waste sorting guide manual drawn by the volunteers, a refrigerator sticker printed with a waste sorting pithy formula and a two-dimensional code for classification search, and a wall mounted garbage bag bracket."
In 2019, the participation rate of residents in waste sorting in the community reached 100%, and the sorting accuracy rate exceeded 98%, making it a waste sorting demonstration site in Shanghai. On July 1, 2019, the first day of the official implementation of the Shanghai Municipal Household Waste Management Regulations, the volunteers who used to be on duty next to the garbage bins every day were "laid off", and the household waste was no longer thrown at random but all classified.
Waste sorting is the barometer of community governance. Each sub-district in Hongkou gives full play to its advantages in its Party building brand projects to promote grassroots governance of waste sorting, so that the rate of standardization in the evaluation of residential areas and companies has gradually increased to more than 95%, forming a benign and full coverage effect.
In recent years, Hongkou District has actively explored the long-term mechanism of "science and technology + management", explored the intelligent transformation of garbage compartments, and incorporated it into the "one network unified management", laying the foundation for the process re-engineering of waste sorting management services. Jiaxing Road Sub-district has built a "smart brain" for waste sorting by installing intelligent induction cameras and voice broadcast systems at the garbage distribution sites in each community. Through the real-time intercom, voice reminder, online APP tracing, and other functions, it has realized the remote supervision of garbage distribution in the community and improved community management.
By the beginning of 2023, the daily average production of residual waste in Hongkou District was 393 tons, 36% less than that when General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Hongkou in November 2018. The daily average production of household food waste is 229 tons, about three times the amount at that time. The daily average production of recyclable materials is 183 tons, about three times the amount at that time. The classification efficiency has steadily improved.