"Underachievers" have made a comeback, making it more troublesome to throw garbage and making the behavior of garbage bins and garbage bins more complex | Underachievers | Garbage

Compared with communities, many units and public places are still lagging behind in the classification of household waste. They constrain uncivilized behavior and encourage correct classification and disposal, either due to limited conditions or relative lack of supporting facilities, making them more prone to problems such as mixed disposal and environmental pollution.

There is a viewpoint that whether a city's garbage classification is good or not depends on how well the units and public places are doing in this area.

In Shanghai, the unit classification compliance rate in 2019 was 87%. With the continuous improvement of the entire classification system, this value has remained stable at over 95% ever since.

How did these "underachievers" make a comeback in just a few years?

Source: Waste bins becoming more complex

Starting from June this year, six new sets of waste bins have appeared at Hongqiao Airport. In the past, an old set of waste bins only had one dry garbage bin and one recyclable bin. The new set of waste bins has been expanded to five bins, adding three more bins next to the original recyclable bin, which are used to "eat" waste plastics, waste metals, and waste paper.

A reporter from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News discovered a new set of waste bins near the check-in counter on the departure floor of Terminal T2 at Hongqiao Airport. The integrated waste bin has four different shaped discharge openings from left to right at the top, guiding people to discharge dry waste, wet waste, and two different shapes of recyclable materials.

"These are a batch of new waste containers that started working in June 2021. Currently, there are 30 sets of waste containers in the entire Hongqiao Airport." Li Xubei, Environmental Management Manager of the Operations Management Department of Shanghai Hong Kong Company, said that there is still a batch of old waste containers that are still holding their posts. Including the first two types, there are currently three types of waste containers in use at the departure level of Hongqiao Airport.

Three types of waste bins at Hongqiao Airport

More finely classified waste bins appear in Joy City. At the escalator entrance on the 2nd floor of the North Block of Jing'an Joy City, the old waste bin was replaced by a row of 6 garbage bins two years ago. Recyclable bins are divided into 5 categories, including glass, metal, plastic, paper, textiles, etc., each with a corresponding garbage bin.

The waste bin has become more complex, isn't it even more troublesome to throw garbage? Will it affect everyone's enthusiasm for classifying in public places?

However, Hongqiao Airport has used data to prove that such troubles have actually had a positive effect: in the first half of this year, Hongqiao Airport generated an average of 151 barrels of dry garbage per day. Despite the rapid recovery of flight volume and passenger volume this year, it still decreased by 34% compared to the first half of 2021; The daily average production of recyclable materials is 0.995 tons, an increase of 221% compared to the first half of 2021; An average of 11.5 barrels of wet garbage are generated daily, an increase of 9.5% compared to the first half of 2021.

"On the surface, it may seem like a hassle, but in reality, providing convenience to passengers based on their actual needs and configuring reasonable garbage sorting hardware is also a service." Li Xubei said that the waste bins at Hongqiao Airport are dynamically adjusted, mainly based on the passenger flow through the waste bins and surrounding areas, passenger feedback, the amount of recyclable materials in the main categories after secondary sorting in the garbage bin room, and combined with the site conditions for setting up the waste bins to make phased adjustments.

Garbage sorting supervisor Lu Youzhen told reporters that after communicating with domestic and foreign tourists, they found that they think Shanghai's recyclable materials can be classified more finely. Some foreign friends feel that mixing plastic bottles, glass bottles, etc. into recyclable bins makes them very uncomfortable. The various styles of waste bins that have been adjusted can basically meet the needs of passengers in the corresponding area to classify and dispose of garbage. The most intuitive result is the continuous reduction of dry garbage and the continuous increase of other garbage.

The reporter learned that the number of waste bins on the departure level of Hongqiao Airport has continued to decrease in recent years, and has now been reduced to half of the level before the implementation of the Shanghai Municipal Regulations on Domestic Waste Management. The sharp decrease in the number of waste bins may objectively cause trouble for passengers who want to throw garbage, but such trouble has not led to a decline in waste classification at Hongqiao Airport. The reason behind this is actually the same as the complexity of waste bins.

"After reducing the amount of waste bins, if they can basically meet the demand for disposal, even if we take a few more steps, as long as the garbage that needs to be subdivided has a corresponding destination, a subtle balance between trouble and convenience can be achieved." Li Xubei said that grasping the psychology and demands of passengers who dispose of garbage, rather than just assuming the configuration of waste bins, is one of the key to good garbage classification in public places.

Hongqiao Airport promotes garbage classification through various channels

Transfer: Merchants voluntarily reduce their volume

In addition to the waste bin, there is also a temporary garbage bin room in the mall that becomes more complex.

In the basement of Jing'an Joy City, there is a dedicated space for dry waste, wet waste, and recyclable materials, each equipped with corresponding disposal equipment, with the main function of further slimming down the garbage.

Dry garbage has a sealed compressor that flattens the fluffy, contaminated paper, plastic, and other dry garbage, freeing up more space in the dry garbage bin.

Wet garbage is sent to an intelligent processing machine, which separates kitchen waste oil, wastewater, and dry residue. High value kitchen waste oil is collected and transported separately, and the wastewater flows into the sewage treatment facilities of the shopping mall through pipelines for treatment before being discharged into the municipal sewage pipeline network. The volume of wet waste after water and oil removal is reduced to 60-70% of the original.

The recyclables that need to be compressed are low-value recyclables with low density and large volume, such as foamed plastics. After being squeezed by a cold press, they are "condensed" into blocks of high-density, heavy foamed plastic bricks, which are convenient for transportation, increase the collection and transportation efficiency, and reduce the collection and transportation costs.

Dry and wet garbage treatment equipment in Jing'an Joy City

He Dongfang, the on-site supervisor of the Joy City garbage classification operation, admitted that the cost of further "slimming down" the garbage is very high. Not only does it require sacrificing some parking spaces to allocate dedicated disposal space, but it also requires spending a lot of money to introduce multiple sets of professional processing equipment. The main reason why the mall insists on doing so is that it can save multiple operating costs in the long run.

Pointing to the intelligent bucket washing machine next to the sealed garbage compactor, He Dongfang said that more than 200 garbage bins, which used to take at least two cleaners half a day to clean, can now be cleaned by just one person in just three or four hours. The cost reduction benefits of slimming down with wet waste are more significant: usually, Jing'an Joy City can produce 90 to 100 barrels of wet waste per day; After slimming down, you can save at least 600 yuan in wet garbage removal costs per day.

As for recyclable materials, the subdivided purchase price is higher because a large amount of recyclable materials are classified at the source, saving space for secondary sorting for the already compact recyclable material transfer station. It can store more recyclable materials waiting for transportation, reduce the time that recyclable materials stay at the classification source, and make the environment more friendly.

Automatic bucket washing machine

Foam plastic cold press

Cao Qian, the head of the Environmental Sanitation Management Department of the Greening City Appearance Bureau in Jing'an District, said that the effective garbage classification model for units and public places often finds a balance between public interests such as delivery, collection, and environmental friendliness. In short, it is to enable all parties to benefit from garbage classification and recognize the value of classification.

At Hongqiao Airport, the household waste generated by merchants is loaded into iron bins on short shuttle trucks and dragged by staff to the garbage bin room. The types of garbage in each short transfer are clearly labeled, allowing passengers to see the real and transparent process of garbage transportation. The rumor that "no matter how classified, they will eventually mix together" is unfounded, and every passenger who carefully classifies will feel that their efforts are not in vain.

At Shanghai Children's Hospital, volunteers placed "Blue Treasure Intelligent Recycling Boxes" next to the outpatient building, scanned the QR code to open the disposal compartment, and put in recyclable materials. If placed correctly, points can be earned. After the points meet the standards, small gifts can be exchanged. This measure has increased the enthusiasm of medical workers and patients for disposal, and further improved their awareness of garbage classification.

Although the quality of source classification is already very high, in the garbage bin room of Hongqiao Airport, cleaners still carry out secondary sorting, picking out some small wet garbage stuck on napkins and beverage bottles to meet the receiving units with high quality

A notice to parents in front of the nurse's desk at Shanghai Children's Hospital, introducing precautions such as the location of garbage classification and disposal points

For merchants in shopping malls, fine garbage classification and source reduction can still provide tangible incentives.

Short transfer the trash cans from the store to the garbage bin room in the shopping mall, scan the QR code to register the number of trash cans sent online, and accept the opening inspection of the supervisor... For this process, the cleaning staff outside the riverside city are already familiar with it.

After verification, this information has become an important basis for the comprehensive evaluation of Joy City merchants every quarter. Merchants who perform well in garbage classification and reduction can receive a reward of 1000 yuan. Recyclable materials generated in the store can be collected at home for a fee, without the need for self transportation. In addition, the waste disposal fee for the next contract period can be discounted.

This kind of incentive not only encourages merchants to consciously do a good job of garbage sorting at the source, but also proactively reminds consumers not to order too much and whether the dishes fit well? So as to avoid waste caused by "bad taste" and fundamentally reduce the generation of garbage.

In the garbage bin room of Jing'an Joy City, the cleaner scans the code to register information, and the supervisor flips the lid to check the internal classification of the garbage bin