Garbage sorting at housing estates inspected

Bins for garbage classification and recycling of used clothes are seen at a housing estate in Baolong Subdistrict, Longgang District. DT News

A female resident living in the Binchengxincun housing estate in Xin’an Subdistrict in Bao’an District expressed her support for garbage sorting, while pointing out the fact that there were not enough bins around. “We have a large amount of kitchen waste,” she told the law enforcement officers.

The law enforcement officers visiting the housing estate yesterday also found that the property management company of the residential compound had failed to update their garbage management books, in addition to not providing enough trash bins.

According to staff with the estate’s management company, around 389 households live in the compound. However, there is only one place set up for residents to discard garbage.

The officers issued a notice to the management company to urge rectification of their irregularities.

At Hongjingyuan, another residential compound in Xin’an Subdistrict, trash bins of different types were placed as required. However, waste was not disposed of correctly by the residents.

Other waste was found in bins used for kitchen waste, and the bins used for kitchen waste were not removed according to the rules.

According to the city’s garbage sorting regulation, at least two time periods in principle should be arranged for residents to throw away kitchen garbage.

At the same time, the kitchen waste bins should be shifted to a garbage storage site outside the periods set for discarding kitchen waste.

Most residential compounds in the city select the period between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. to allow residents to throw away kitchen waste.

At some residential compounds, residents are allowed to throw away kitchen waste at two periods every day, namely, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“It is hard for residents to throw away kitchen waste at designated times. Some people have no idea how to sort garbage correctly. We have released notices on our app to remind them of discarding kitchen waste at night from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. However, not everyone observes the rules,” said the manager of the Hongjingyuan’s property management company, surnamed Tang.

Residents at the Tixiangmingyuan housing estate in Futian District are allowed to throw away kitchen waste only between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. every day. A female resident surnamed Zheng stated that she often works overtime and gets home after 9 p.m. Therefore, it's hard for her to dispose of kitchen waste within the designated time slot.

"In Shenzhen, there are many office workers like me who often work overtime and get home late. The housing estate should offer more time slots to the residents to throw away their kitchen waste," said Zheng.

A week has passed since the official implementation of the garbage sorting regulation that started Sept. 1.

From Sept. 1 to 3, the urban management authority has checked 4,037 garbage classification sites and issued 1,003 notices for rectifying garbage sorting irregularities.