China to implement garbage sorting in all cities by 2025

By the end of this year, China plans on implementing garbage sorting in over 90% of residential communities in cities at or above the prefecture level. Then raise the coverage ratio to 100 percent by the end of 2025.

Ni Hong, minister of housing and urban-rural development, said at a recent meeting in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, that garbage sorting is one of the ministry's priorities this year.

More efforts should be made to improve related laws, build household waste management platforms with information technologies, and strengthen waste incineration capacity, Ni said.

In 297 Chinese cities, garbage sorting is being carried out, with an average coverage rate of 82.5 percent in residential communities. The daily capacity for garbage disposal has increased to 530,000 tonnes, with incineration accounting for 77.6% of that total.

Starting this year, China will promote a garbage sorting publicity week annually during the fourth week of May. This year's event runs from May 22 to 28.