Shanghai launches cleanup project
Shanghai (Xinhua File Photo)

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai will take measures to reduce the particulate-caused air pollution and improve garbage sorting this year, city officials said yesterday.

The government will recruit volunteers to help them monitor environmental problems throughout the city.

"The government is aware of the particulate air problems on streets and will do its best to improve the situation," Chen Rujun, an official of the pollution control department of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau, said yesterday.

He said the government would require construction project managers to surround most of the city's road-involved construction sites with fences at least two meters high.

The government will also demand construction managers use watering carts on a regular basis and use dust control equipment in workshops.

Chen said the government had recruited 10 university students as the city's first volunteers for environmental protection. Starting from May, they will go through the city's construction sites to look for environmental problems and report back to the government.

More volunteers will be recruited in the future.

Companies or project managers who were found responsible for environmental problems will be publicized in local media, Chen said.

The Shanghai Waste Management Division announced yesterday it would team up with local domestic helper agencies to incorporate garbage sorting into training for maids, known as ayi.

Division officials said they had already contacted Jinguoyuan, one of the city's largest domestic helper agents, to teach ayi how to sort different waste according to the government's criteria and place it into the correct collection bins.

The plan came after the city government launched a pilot program adopting a garbage sorting system this year, requiring residents in about 1,000 residential areas to leave ordinary household garbage, recyclable waste, glass and hazardous materials in different colored garbage bins. The pilot program would be expanded to cover about 70 percent of the city by 2010. (Shanghai Daily)