Taking out the trash

It's nearing 11 am and Zhang Yuan, a garbage collector for the Zhongcang environmental sanitation bureau in Tongzhou district, is completing his final round of the morning.

Zhang's pickup truck is small enough to squeeze into the hutong adjacent to Zhongcang Nandajie, where many retirees bring him their trash upon hearing his truck. Zhang and his driver companion amble along slowly, stopping out the front of courtyard homes from time to time to scoop up bagged trash from residents still used to dumping their garbage instead of disposing of it in-person.

Since September 10, garbage bins have disappeared along Zhongcang Nandajie. In their place have emerged garbage trucks, such as Zhang's. Even though the new method of trash collection has been welcomed by many residents, it isn't necessarily the best solution for Beijing's wider waste management woes.

Garbage on the go

The new method, dubbed "non-landing garbage," entails exactly what it suggests. Previously, garbage trucks emptied bins at 22 designated stations on Zhongcang Nandajie. Now, six trucks are sent out at 30-minute intervals to circle around the block. Often, the trucks play music to alert residents they are nearby.

Similar methods of garbage collection are used in Taiwan and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, however Tongzhou is the first Beijing district to trial the scheme.

Each garbage truck takes about one-and-a-half hours to complete its round. Starting from trash collecting station No. 2, it winds its way from the nearby hutong to the main section of Zhongcang Nandajie. Yang Liwang, director of the Zhongcang environmental sanitation bureau, explained to Metro Beijing each truck is operated by two people - a driver and a trash collector, the latter who helps residents dispose trash and shovel strewn garbage. The six trucks can collect up to 25 tons of trash daily, Yang said.

Results have been "satisfactory" since the scheme was launched last month, according to Xing Yongshun, deputy director of the Tongzhou environmental sanitation bureau.

Shi Hongkui, originally from North China's Shanxi Province, owns and operates the Liangkouzi noodle restaurant on Zhongcang Nandajie with his wife. He told Metro Beijing the current method is much better than the old way, which required him to carry waste from his business to a distant designated collection point.

"Our restaurant generates so much trash that I used to have to empty both bins three or four times daily. Now, I can just dump it in the truck whenever it passes by," he said.

Bai Enxiang, a resident of Cailao Hutong, agreed with Shi that the new system was much better. He told Metro Beijing before such trucks were used, residents disposed trash in bins at the entrance of their hutong. This was particularly problematic in summer, when accumulated garbage would cause a pungent odor and attract flies and vermin.

Rubbish revolution in the hutong

While local sanitation authorities are cautiously optimistic about their new model for waste management, they concede it isn't the best solution for the wider municipality.

Cui Xuan, deputy director of the environmental sanitation management bureau at the Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying that, based on current circumstances, the model is only applicable to certain neighborhoods.

Door-to-door garbage collection relies heavily on trucks circling an area and, while it may be convenient for Nandajie, this could intensify traffic congestion in urban areas, Cui warned.

Cui added that in foreign countries, residential areas often have wider roads that make it easier for trucks to come by and collect trash. But in Beijing, it's impossible for most regular-sized trucks to navigate the city's narrow network of hutong.

In fact, a different trash collecting method for the hutong has already been implemented at the Xisi area, Xicheng district.

A director surnamed Zhang from Huanxing Street Cleaning, which is affiliated with the Xicheng environmental sanitation bureau, told Metro Beijing that garbage bins were removed from Xisi Beiliutiao and Xisi Beiqitiao hutong in 2009. Since then, electric-powered carts have been used to collect residential trash door-to-door.

"The reason we started doing this was that trucks couldn't get inside small hutong and the communal garbage bins smelled awful in summer," he said.

From 6 am daily, garbage collectors drive carts every 15 minutes around the hutong and pick up trash at doors of residential homes. The center has a total of two pickup carts, four sanitation carts and one spraying cart. Collectively, they pick up around 1.6 tons of garbage daily.

In an aromatic twist, spaces that used to be home to garbage bins are now sites of flowers and trees.

Recycling marks next step

Xing said the current method used in Zhongcang Nandajie that aims to avoid trash being out in public is common in many small neighborhoods in developed countries. He was originally inspired to experiment with it in Tongzhou after seeing a video of the practice in Japan.

Satoshi Nishida, a 19-year-old Japanese exchange student from Tokyo studying at Beijing Language and Culture University, said communal garbage bins in neighborhoods are a relic of the past in his hometown.

"From 6 to 9 am on Tuesdays and Saturdays, residents put bagged trash at a designated station. At 10 am, the trucks come to collect the garbage and transport it to waste processing plants," he told Metro Beijing.

One of the starkest differences between Tongzhou and Tokyo in waste management, however, is trash categorization. "To protect the environment, we have strict rules on categorizing trash as recyclable, combustible or incombustible," Nishida said.

Tokyo households that fail to categorize their trash face fines of about 100 yuan ($16) per kilogram, he added.

He Xiaoxia, a researcher from the environmental NGO Green Beagle, told Metro Beijing using trucks on rotating rounds to collect garbage is a step in the right direction, although it doesn't offer a silver bullet in waste management. She added it needs to be coupled with trash categorization to be more effective.

"The current system is more convenient for residents and can be cleaner, but it's only the beginning," she said.