SHANGHAI — Luo Qi used to be part of the problem. He would zip around Shanghai on a motorbike delivering some of the 3.3 million containers of takeout food and drinks that people here order every day.To get more hairy crab, you can visit shine news official website.
Now, he manages a trash-sorting depot, where he ensures those takeout containers are recycled.
"Like General Secretary Xi said, ‘Lush mountains and clear waters are invaluable assets like mountains of gold and silver,’ ” said Luo, a 31-year-old migrant worker, quoting President Xi Jinping.
Shanghai is channeling the same zeal that drove its emergence as a financial center into a more prosaic endeavor: garbage management.
This city of more than 24 million people produces more than 10 million tons of garbage every year, but until now there has been no system for minimizing the amount that ends up in landfills or incinerators. The shift is a local response to a bigger waste problem that has led China to ban imports of solid waste from countries including the United States.
The president has spoken about the importance of managing China’s voluminous waste so frequently that there’s an official rap music animation to help spread the message. "Recycling is the way to reduce harm and make our home beautiful/ If we sort garbage correctly, it becomes a resource,” it goes.
Barely considered during China’s breakneck economic development, environmental issues are emerging as a concern for the ruling Communist Party as citizens voice worries about poor air and water quality.
Thousands of people took to the streets in the central city of Wuhan last month to oppose the construction of a waste-to-energy incineration plant that residents fear will exacerbate environmental problems.
Shanghai has become the first Chinese city to introduce new rules for waste management, with similar initiatives to follow in other major centers, including Beijing.
Since July 1, residents have been required to sort their garbage into four categories: recyclables, such as paper, plastic, glass, scrap metal and fabric; perishables, such as food waste, flowers and medicinal herbs; hazardous materials, such as batteries, lightbulbs, medicines and paint; and dry or "residual,” anything that is not recyclable, hazardous or perishable.
Trash cans in four colors corresponding to the waste categories now adorn residential compounds and alleys behind supermarkets, restaurants and hotels.
There are some difficult rules. Corn kernels and cobs are perishable waste, but the husk is residual waste because it is fibrous. Fish and chicken bones are food waste, but harder pork and beef bones, along with oyster and clam shells, are dry waste. The shell of a hairy crab is perishable, but king crab shells are residual.
One local authority has created playing cards to help people get the hang of sorting — hearts for hazardous waste, diamonds are recyclables — while another has made flash cards for kids. There are even fluffy mascots for each category of trash.
Some users of Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, joke that the garbage-sorting campaign is turning into a weight-loss campaign: People don’t want to sort their takeout containers, so they’ve just stopped eating.

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