Residents might be charged for domestic garbage disposal based on quantity, according to a draft regulation on classified disposal of domestic garbage that was published on DT, the official mobile app of the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, to seek public opinion.

According to the draft, the city proposes to gradually establish a pricing system for domestic garbage management to promote classified garbage disposal.

At present, the daily amount of the city’s domestic garbage has reached 18,000 tons. However, the overall capacity of the five garbage incineration power plants and three landfill plants currently in operation is 14,025 tons per day. As a consequence, garbage-processing facilities have been overworked for a long time, according to a report in the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily on Thursday.

However, building new plants will bring about many problems. Also, the current garbage management model, wherein the construction of facilities is dependent on real demand, is destined to cause disposal work to fall behind. As a result, it is necessary to redesign the schema in order to make residents reduce garbage and consciously classify garbage, the report said.

The method of charging for garbage disposal based on quantity was implemented in Taipei in 2000. Hong Kong has also launched legal procedures to implement this method, and Shenzhen’s draft regulation was also inspired by this practice.

An official with the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress noted that the city is currently collecting garbage disposal fees with water bills. However, there is no correlation between daily garbage quantity and water usage, the official said. Thus, the current pricing system makes it difficult to raise residents’ awareness of reducing garbage.

On the contrary, the new pricing system will have more direct influences, according to the official, who also suggested that a pilot program be implemented in some areas first until it is mature enough for implementation across the city.

The city has established a system to separately dispose of eight kinds of garbage including glass, plastic, paper, large waste, plants and hazardous waste. Although kitchen waste is claimed to make up around half of the total domestic garbage, it is not included in the current classification system, the report said.

The draft regulation classifies domestic garbage into four categories, namely recycled, perishable, hazardous and other waste. Kitchen waste, along with vegetable and fruit waste, is included in the category of perishable waste.

In order to help residents form a habit, the city plans to raise the intensity of punishment for those who fail to dispose of garbage according to the rules. Violators will be fined at least 500 yuan (US$74), or 1,000 yuan for serious violations.