California garbage classification： each household has three trash cans of different colors.

　　Residents of fremont, San Francisco Bay Area, USA push their three-color trash cans to the street every Wednesday, waiting for the garbage recycling company to handle them uniformly. (Photo by People’s Network Han Shasha)

　　People’s Daily Online, San Francisco, April 20 (Han Shasha) Every Wednesday morning, the citizens of Fremont, San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA always push out three roller trash cans with different colors that are usually placed in the yard, and open them in front of the street in a row.

　　As the garbage trucks rumble past, these garbage cans placed on the street are classified, dumped and transported away.

　　Trash cans of different colors have their own uses. In this city, gray trash cans are used to hold renewable garbage, such as wine bottles, beverage bottles, cans, clean waste paper, etc. Blue trash can is used to hold non-recyclable garbage, such as leftovers, vegetable roots and peels and other kitchen waste; Green trash can is used to hold garden garbage such as weeds and pruned branches in the yard.

　　This is a microcosm of the classification of domestic waste in California. Although each city gives different "connotations" to trash cans with different colors, and the time for recycling garbage once a week is not the same, garbage sorting has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts and become a daily routine.

　　Specialized companies provide garbage collection services in a unified way.

　　The garbage classification system in the United States is a mature and perfect system, which includes not only the front-end classification carried out by residents in daily life, but also the back-end recycling, landfill treatment and degradation, so as to realize the reduction, harmlessness and resource utilization of domestic garbage.

　　Residents’ classification of domestic waste is the basis of the whole system engineering. Every city has a clear explanation, education and promotion activities for garbage classification. On the official website of the city, residents can consult various information such as specific garbage recycling plans and garbage classification. In addition to common household garbage, including toxic household cleaners, paint thinners, pesticides, fluorescent bulbs and tubes containing mercury, thermometers and thermostats, electronic waste and vehicle batteries, household harmful waste is not allowed to be put into the roadside roller trash can. Because domestic harmful waste contains toxic substances, if it is not handled properly, it will harm human beings and the environment. These harmful waste must be placed in the designated recycling place and cannot be discarded at will.

　　The sorted garbage is collected by a special garbage recycling company on a fixed date, and residents pay a certain amount of "garbage clearing fee" every month. Individuals are strictly forbidden to rummage through the available items in the trash can without permission, otherwise it will be treated as theft. There are more than 20,000 garbage recycling companies in the United States providing services to different cities. Take San Francisco as an example. Recology is a service company in this city. Residents receive three 32-gallon garbage bins free of charge, and pay the service fee of $35.18 per month to the company, which provides regular garbage removal service.

　　Usually, garbage recycling companies will reclassify domestic garbage in different ways and recycle it reasonably. Renewable plastics, metals, waste paper and glass will be sorted, recycled and reused; Burning combustible materials to generate electricity; Decomposable organic matter is fermented to make organic fertilizer; Inorganic waste is used to pave the road. In recent years, garbage recycling companies have reprocessed domestic garbage in a more optimized way, and often use organic garbage gasification to generate electricity; Pyrolysis and incineration of pollutants, incineration and heating, gasification and power generation, purification of water and gas residue, etc. According to the website of Luyuan Recycling Company, food waste in San Francisco was transported to a nearby factory and turned into valuable fertilizer. Some finished fertilizers are sold to vineyards in Napa wine country.

　　Residents who litter may go to jail.

　　The strict implementation of garbage sorting in the United States is inseparable from the government’s education and promotion and detailed laws and regulations.

　　The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is the basic law for the management of solid and hazardous wastes in the United States. On October 21, 1976, the US Congress passed the law reform to deal with the growing problem of urban and industrial waste. This law is divided into three parts, which respectively put forward requirements for the management of solid waste, hazardous waste and underground storage of hazardous waste. The focus of this law is the control and management of hazardous waste. In order to cooperate with this law, the US Environmental Protection Agency has formulated hundreds of regulations, plans and guidelines on the discharge, collection, storage, transportation, treatment, disposal and recycling of solid waste and hazardous waste, forming a relatively complete system of solid waste management laws and regulations.

　　In addition to federal laws, each state also has its own laws and regulations. Littering is a crime in America. Every state has laws prohibiting littering, and littering is a third-degree misdemeanor, punishable by a fine ranging from 300 to 1,000 dollars, imprisonment or community service (up to one year), or a combination of two or three of the above.

　　San Francisco, California, USA has made remarkable achievements in garbage sorting, recycling and reuse, with a garbage recovery rate of 80%, which is called "green city in green state". Siemens conducted a study in 2011, and the results were published in the "Green City Index". By comparing the sustainable development performance of 27 major American and Canadian cities, San Francisco was rated as the greenest city in North America and ranked first in garbage management.

　　This result is closely related to the California government’s advanced environmental awareness and the promulgation of a series of bills. As early as 1921, the government of San Francisco required that garbage recycling must be managed by companies, and individual garbage recycling behavior should be banned, thus resulting in "Sunset Cleaning Company" and "Cleaners Association", which is now the Luyuan Recycling Company in San Francisco. In 1989, the city of San Francisco passed the "Comprehensive Waste Management Act (AB939)", requiring all administrative districts to achieve 50% waste disposal by reduction and recycling before 2000. Regional managers who failed to meet the requirements were fined $10,000 per day. At the same time, the household is taken as an independent individual to carry out classified garbage collection, and institutions regularly come to collect recyclable items, and the sales proceeds are used to cover the garbage disposal expenses.

　　According to this law, California has set up a "Unified Management Committee for Municipal Waste" to specifically guide and supervise the implementation of various tasks, with the aim of making people fully aware of the fact that municipal waste is increasing and landfill sites are becoming increasingly scarce.

　　With the passage of time, the San Francisco government’s laws on garbage recycling and classification have become more and more detailed, including the implementation of the "Waste Electrical Appliances Recycling Law" passed by California in 2003, which made specific provisions on the recycling of waste computers, televisions and other audio-visual equipment.

　　In 2009, San Francisco passed the "Compulsory Classification of Garbage", which stipulates that residents must strictly abide by the classification of discarded items, and it is strictly forbidden to rummage through the usable items in the garbage bins without permission, otherwise it will be punished as theft, and at the same time, different levels of fines will be imposed on each household that violates the rules. This was called the most stringent recyclable law in the United States by the media.

　　Why does San Francisco have the confidence to set the goal of "zero waste"?

　　In 2002, the San Francisco City Supervision Committee and the mayor passed a resolution, and it is planned that by 2010, the conversion rate of garbage recycling and composting will reach 75%, and by 2020, "zero waste" will be completely realized.

　　San Francisco is the first city in the United States to set the goal of "zero waste" of garbage, and it is also the first city to force the use of three-color trash cans for recycling and sorting garbage. In 2013, San Francisco has successfully converted 80% of domestic garbage into recyclable garbage or fertilizer.

　　In comparison, the garbage conversion rate in Los Angeles is 65% and that in Seattle is 50%. According to the data of the US Environmental Protection Agency, in 2014, about 258 million tons of domestic waste was generated in the United States, and more than 89 million tons of garbage was recyclable and compostable, which was equivalent to a recovery rate of 34.6%, and 136 million tons of garbage was landfilled. Internationally, at the end of 2013, the EU’s garbage recycling and composting conversion rate was 42%.

　　The success of the "San Francisco Experience" is related to the radical and harsh government policies of the city. In addition to the above-mentioned series of laws and regulations, this city is the first city in the United States to ban the use of polystyrene foam in food service (2006), requiring mandatory recycling of construction waste (2007), prohibiting free provision of plastic bags in pharmacies and supermarkets (2009), and implementing mandatory garbage recycling and composting classification for residents and enterprises (2009).

　　In addition, there is a public-private partnership garbage collection system. Luyuan Recycling Company, which serves the city of San Francisco, is a private enterprise. In the process of providing services to San Francisco, there was no bidding and no payment to the government. The monthly service fees charged to residents and the profits generated by garbage sorting belong to the company. In 2012, the city of San Francisco once held a vote, and planned to break down garbage collection into five businesses to bid separately. But at that time, this proposal was opposed by 77% of voters.

　　San Francisco’s garbage classification can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is inseparable from the government’s efforts to promote it widely. In order to better implement waste sorting and achieve the goal of "zero waste" in 2020, the environmental protection department of San Francisco specially promotes the publicity and education activities of waste reduction and sorting among young people; Introduced the family design concept of environmental protection garden, founded the San Francisco environmental protection foundation and the San Francisco organic food community; And promote environmental protection organizations in San Francisco community college and universities in San Francisco; Through posters, newspapers, the Internet, public transportation and other media, the publicity and promotion activities of urban garbage control have been carried out for a long time.

　　Whether San Francisco can achieve "zero waste" in 2020 is still unknown, but at least some experiences of the city can be used for reference.