more policy moves on china garbage sorting

I don't think Shenzhen has trialed with Cardia yet, but this story demonstrates the massive shift of thinking in China towards garbage sorting.

http://english.sz.gov.cn/ln/201303/t20130322_2117497.htm

Shenzhen Govt Online

Garbage classification to be subsidized
2013-03-22

THE city's urban management bureau will soon release a plan to subsidize the city's 500 pilot locations for garbage classification, Luo Xiangdong, director of the bureau's garbage classification office, said in an online chat with residents Thursday.

Luo answered questions from the public and introduced the Shenzhen Municipal Government's efforts to promote garbage classification in the chat on the bureau's official Weibo account.

"Subsidies will be decided by the amount of waste reduced through proper classification," Luo said. "Every 240 liters of sorted kitchen waste will lead to a 66-yuan (US$10.52) subsidy."

The bureau has been piloting garbage classification at 500 selected locations, including residential communities, schools, restaurants and industrial parks.

"We will complete the pilot program this year and use its results to decide how to further promote it across the city," Luo said.

Luo added that paying for waste removal is an international practice.

"The more garbage people produce, the more people should pay," Luo said.

Shenzhen produces 13,100 tons of waste each day and the amount is expected to reach 17,800 tons per day by 2015, according to the bureau.

But there are only nine waste-disposal facilities in the city, including seven refuse-incineration facilities and two landfills. The two landfills can handle a combined total of about 8,200 tons of waste each day and are overburdened, indicating a change to the status quo regarding residents' trash disposal is needed.

Many residents said in Thursday's online chat that they were unfamiliar with how classification would work. Questions about how to properly sort domestic garbage and what kinds of waste could be recycled were frequent.

Raising residents' awareness of garbage-sorting and recycling efforts also is important, city officials said, because building new waste-disposal facilities in Shenzhen isn't easy.

Officials cited Shenzhen's limited land resources as a huge hurdle for creating future landfills ? a problem also facing Hong Kong ? and noted that residents are increasingly protesting new trash-incineration facilities because of concerns about health risks.

"Garbage classification requires each resident's participation," Luo said.