Shenzhen will start collecting a garbage treatment fee from every household as well as organizations in the public and private sectors from Jan. 1, Shenzhen Water Group said yesterday.

The fee is set at 13.5 yuan (US$1.73) each month for every household within the special economic zone. For households outside the zone and companies and organizations in the whole city, the fee is 125 yuan for each ton of garbage, or 0.27 yuan for each ton of sewage discharged.

The fee will be included in the monthly water bill. Shenzhen Water Group is authorized to collect the fee on behalf of the municipal government.

The method of paying the garbage treatment fee is the same as that of the water bill.

All orphanages and households on welfare are exempt from the fee.

The municipal government has for several years been considering plans to charge a garbage disposal fee. A public hearing on the subject was held two years ago to fix the fee.

According to the bureau, households or businesses who fail to pay the fee will be fined 3 percent of the fee amount every day.

Some 10,925 tons of garbage are produced in the city every day, at an annual increase of 7.24-percent, and the number is expected to reach 12,375 tons a day in 2010.

The municipal government spends 300 to 500 million yuan every year treating rubbish. The treatment fee, in line with the "polluters-pay" principle, will fund the city's environmentally friendly garbage treatment plants.

More than 100 cities in China, including 14 in Guangdong, are charging a garbage treatment fee, which ranges between three and eight yuan.

Editor: Yan