Guangzhou links credit to sorting of garbage

Classify trash for recycling, or else: That’s the message Guangzhou, Guangdong province, is sending to property management companies.

The city’s urban patrol committee, or chengguan, is cooperating with the housing and urban-rural construction department to create a pilot system that links garbage classification to credit records.

“It aims to further promote garbage classification in the metropolis in the months ahead,” said Peng Ziliang, who is in charge of garbage classification for the chengguan.

“After the new system takes effect this year, the business of local property management companies will be affected if they are found to have a bad credit record,” he said.

Guangzhou will be the first city in the province that links garbage classification to credit records, he said.

Many property management companies from major developers such as Evergrande, R&F, Vanke, Poly, Country Garden, Pearl River Enterprises, Yuexiu, Fangyuan and Times Property attended a training course for garbage classification on July 20.

The course, which will be held from time to time in coming years to promote garbage classification, was jointly organized by the chengguan, the housing department, the health and family planning commission, education bureau, tourism administration, and industrial associations.

The city is also planning to create a training school for garbage classification in the near future, the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.

Fu Guifang, professor and vice-dean of the School of Politics and Public Administration

Hu Yingxia contributed to this story.