Education key to efforts in waste management

With vigorous promotion and extensive participation over the past two years, waste sorting is a new trend that has reshaped the image of campuses across Beijing.

"In the past, sanitation workers sorted the garbage next to the trash cans near the dormitory, generating a stifling odor. On windy days, the trash was blown everywhere and we always skirted around it with our hands covering our noses," says Sun Jiajing, a sophomore at Beijing Forestry University. "Now, we are more proactive in classifying waste."

Since a revised guideline on household waste disposal in Beijing was implemented on May 1, 2020, many students have seen their campuses don a new look that is more pleasant, tidy and appealing.

At Beijing Forestry University, about one in four students are trash-sorting volunteers.

In the Beijing No 20 High School, bins to recycle waste are placed on each floor and students on duty will set their wits to turning trash into cash.

"I received training on trash classification before taking on the role as head of the trash-sorting station. My job is to remind everyone to classify waste and recycle to the best extent," says Ding Shuyi, a student at the school.

As China pushes forward the "double reduction" education policy, which aims to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for primary and middle school students, understanding of waste sorting has been fused into academic teaching via various innovative approaches.

"Our Chinese teachers encourage students to write verses themed on waste classification, math teachers lead them to do math on topics such as water conservation, while our music teachers choreographed a 'waste sorting' dance with the students," says Zuo Chunyun, principal of a primary school in the suburban Tongzhou district of the capital.

Zuo adds that students in senior classes will join trash-sorting projects and map out solutions in the form of handwritten newspapers and mind maps. Decorations made from recycled materials are exhibited in the school's corridors.

The same scene can be seen in Qianjin Primary School, Haidian district. "Garbage can be turned into resources," says Wang Liping, the principal. "We have raised 100,000 yuan ($15,760) of charity funds by encouraging students and their parents to recycle waste, and the money was used to purchase movie screens for schools in Hotan, Xinjiang."

According to Liu Jianguo, a professor at Tsinghua University, the implementation of garbage sorting depends on the extensive participation and unremitting efforts of society, which is conducive to the promotion of social civilization.

"Wide participation of students and school staff will help promote garbage sorting to become a new fashion in society," adds Liu.

Official data shows that over 90 percent of the residents in Beijing have participated in waste classification, and about 85 percent can accurately categorize the garbage. But still, relevant departments are striving to further raise the ratio.

"Our next move will be more precise supervision of groups that did relatively poorer jobs in sorting out garbage," says a staffer with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management.

Xinhua