If you are in Shanghai and want to throw away a cup of milk tea, be careful. You need to follow these steps: first, pour out any leftover into a wet waste bin; second, put the paper wrapper into a recyclable waste bin; third, throw the single-use cup and straw (吸管) into a dry waste bin.
Sound complex (复杂的)? You'll have to get used to it. From July 1 on, people in Shanghai are required to sort (将...分类) their garbage according to strict rules. Many other cities in China are planning to create similar garbage-sorting rules.
Why should we sort our garbage? The answer lies in the increasing amount of waste we are producing. Chinese cities produce over 200 million tons of waste each year, according to China Economic Net. Most of this waste is buried (填埋) in landfills (垃圾填埋场), which may pollute water and soil. Moreover, we are running out of space for new landfills.
In fact, more than half of our waste can be recycled. Recyclable garbage can be made into new materials, while wet garbage can be used to make gas, heat and fertilizer. But in order to recycle efficiently, we need to sort our garbage.
Can't garbage- processing companies do the sorting job for us? They can. But that requires a lot of work and costs lots of money. Things will become much easier if each of us can sort our own garbage. Besides, the troublesome task of sorting might encourage people to produce less waste. Do you still want to buy that milk tea?
