A HEARING on garbage sorting legislation will be held this Friday and participants will include the city’s political advisers, resident representatives and representatives of property management companies, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

    The legislation, by instigating a practice of classified garbage collection at fixed periods of time, is intended to reduce garbage and raise resource utilization and recycling efficiency.

    The draft law under discussion classifies garbage into three types: recyclable items, harmful garbage and other trash. It requires the city’s residents to put garbage into different trash cans at two fixed periods of time, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

    This city’s legislative affairs office said the practice could reduce the use of garbage bags.

    Statistics in 2013 indicated that the city produced 14,293 tons of garbage each day and the amount rose 7 percent this year.

    Several residential areas, such as Binhexincun, Hongli Village and Tianjing Garden, which piloted garbage sorting, have seen good results with the practice. But old residential areas remain slow to act and garbage sorting has not been fully implemented even in areas where classified trash cans were placed. A lack of environmental protection awareness and poor garbage sorting facilities took the blame in the Daily’s report.

    In the Lianhuabei residential complex, a community that introduced garbage sorting several years ago, the practice was poorly implemented. “Very few households sort their garbage and most people just bring their garbage downstairs and throw it into the dumpster unsorted. The classifications on the dumpsters are just empty titles,” said a real estate management supervisor in the area.

    Many residents have expressed support for garbage sorting, but the fixed garbage collection periods were considered a rigid policy since people follow different timetables.

    A real estate management company also asked who would be obliged to pay for the garbage sorting facilities if the practice is promoted extensively.(Anna Zhao)