Duan Haodi demonstrates the use of the OK bag at the Grand Final of the 2017 national "in with the trash" contest. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Pilot projects

Five Xiamen University environmental science majors devised a system that educates, assists and supervises students' waste sorting that's inspired by an environmental campaign that Xiamen's municipal government initiated last year.

They piloted the project in a dorm building a year ago.

Team members knocked on all 60 rooms' doors to hand out eco-packages that contain a woven sack for recyclables, an adhesive hook for hanging it, a kitchen-waste trashcan and a flyer about waste sorting.

Team member Qiao Biting insists on persuading students in person to use different containers for different waste.

"It's the simplest and most effective way," the 21-year-old says.

"Inertia is a part of human nature. Cultivating good habits is a long process."

Qiao and her teammates placed seven trash containers for categories ranging from paper to toxic waste.

The containers are printed with emojis and conversation bubbles that encourage people to sort their trash into the correct bins.

The "recyclables" emoji is a smiley face with dollar signs for eyes. The word bubble beside it reads, "Trade me for money!"

Team members volunteer to monitor the containers three hours a week to ensure they're used properly.

Dorm resident Cai Zhiyi says: "It has improved our living standards."

He believes it has helped eliminate cockroaches in his room and means garbage collectors no longer have to sometimes literally "dive" into their work.

The system has expanded to seven buildings that house nearly 2,000 students in total. The team's new goal is to implement the project in all 66 dorm buildings on Xiamen University's Xiang'an campus.

"Xiamen University may become one of the leading universities worldwide in waste sorting if they fully adopt the system," says Mao Da, policy consultant of the NGO China Zero Waste Alliance.

Mao, who's a competition judge, appreciates the method's educational value. He recommends implementing it across universities in China.

Indeed, it seems the competition's contestants are at least stabbing in the right direction and may carve out cutting-edge waste-disposal innovations worth preserving and promoting.