Household waste is classified into four categories in Beijing, namely kitchen waste, recyclable waste, hazardous waste and other waste. Bins for kitchen waste are green, those for recyclable waste are blue, those for hazardous waste are red, and those for other waste are gray.
1. Kitchen waste: It refers to the perishable garbage generated by families such as outer leaves and leaves of vegetables, peels and cores of fruit, leftovers, and discarded food; food residues, food-processing wastes and discarded edible oils and fats generated during food process, catering service, meal service by canteens of enterprises engaged in catering operations, government departments, troops, schools, and public institutions; vegetable and fruit waste, rotten meat, meat scraps and bones, aquatic products, and livestock and poultry offals produced in agricultural markets and wholesale markets. Among them, discarded edible oils and fats refer to animal and vegetable oils and fats and oil-water mixtures that are not edible.
Disposal Requirements: Kitchen waste should be separated from other types of waste when it is generated. Before disposal, water should be drained off from kitchen waste and care taken to ensure that it does not contain glass, ceramic, metal, plastic, or rubber. Pure liquid food waste, such as milk, should be directly dumped into the sewer. Expired food with packaging should be sorted and handled after its packaging is removed, and the packaging placed in the corresponding recyclable or other garbage bins.
2. Recyclable waste: It refers to items which are either produced in daily life or in the activities that provide services for daily life, have already lost all or part of their use value, and can become raw materials or reused items after reprocessing. It mainly includes waste paper, plastic, glass, metal, electronic waste, and fabrics.
Disposal Requirements: Recyclable waste should be kept as clean and dry as much as possible and contamination avoided before being put in bins. For example, waste paper should be flat; three-dimensional packages should be emptied, cleaned and squashed; glass products should be handled gently, and those with sharp edges should be wrapped before being put in bins.
3. Hazardous waste: It refers to toxic and hazardous substances in household waste, including used batteries (cadmium-nickel batteries, mercury-oxide batteries, lead-acid batteries, etc.), discarded fluorescent light tubes (fluorescent tubes, energy-saving lamps, etc.), discarded thermometers, discarded blood pressure monitors, pesticides and their packaging, expired medicines and their packaging, and waste paints, solvents and their packaging.
Disposal Requirements: Hazardous waste should be put into bins intactly to avoid secondary pollution. Cadmium-nickel batteries, mercury-oxide and lead-acid batteries should be placed gently into bins; paint buckets and pesticide bottles should be sealed before being taken to bins if any residue remains; fluorescent tubes, energy-saving lamps and other fragile items should be packaged or wrapped and placed gently as well. Expired medicines should be disposed of together with their packaging. Volatile hazardous waste should be sealed before putting them in the bins. Other hazardous waste should be placed in the corresponding recyclable or other garbage bins.
4. Other waste: It refers to household waste other than kitchen, recyclable, and hazardous waste, as well as which is difficult to classify. It mainly includes lunch boxes, napkins, wet tissues, toilet paper, plastic bags, food packaging bags, contaminated paper, cigarette butts, diapers, disposable tableware, large bones, shells, flower pots, ceramic fragments. In short, household waste that is difficult to classify can be put in bins for other waste.
Disposal Requirements: Water should be drained off from other waste before being put in the bins.
(Source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management)