Gaocheng, a village about 20 kilometers north of Hangzhou City, has 204 families and a population of 895. In June, 2020, the village started an activity to help its villagers develop the habit of sorting waste. In December, the village won a monthly competition among over 20 villages. It sets a good example to the other villages now.
In front of each of those families now stand two dustbins, the green one for waste that goes smelly(难闻的) easily and the gray one for anything else. Every day after dinner, volunteers check whether the rubbish has been put into right bins. This makes the job easier for those who collect the rubbish the next early morning.
According to every family's performance, volunteers give them a score every day. Once a month families can change the total scores into things such as eggs and cooking oil.
One of the villagers, Li Rongchun, said that it was difficult to ask villagers to sort waste right because most villagers have had bad habits for a long time. At first, villagers considered sorting rubbish was a waste of time, but over the time they have realized its importance and have become better at it. And most families perform well enough to be able to get the highest score.
