Instructors provide door-to-door guidance to protect environment HANGZHOU - Starting in 2016, Chen Xuefen, a garbage-sorting instructor in Zhejiang province, has been "talking trash" with the help of her smartphone. She scans the QR code on any garbage bag in a trash can and immediately knows who threw it away. "We get free garbage bags from our community committee. Each household is given bags with a different QR code," Chen said. If residents don't sort the waste correctly, instructors come to their homes and show them how to do it properly. "In the past, we had no idea who had thrown what away," Chen said. Chen is one of the hundreds of garbage-sorting instructors in Huachuan community, where she and another 10,000-plus residents live. As volunteers, the instructors are meant to help residents manage their trash, especially in the kitchen, which accounts for 50 percent of all household waste. "In Huachuan, more than 90 percent of residents currently know how to sort household waste," Chen said. Built in the 1980s, Huachuan generates about 1,500 liters of garbage a day, which was previously dumped and taken away, and then burned or buried. Though Zhejiang introduced garbage sorting in 2010, progress was initially less than satisfactory. Since 2012, Huachuan's public trash bins have been divided by "kitchen waste", "recyclables", "hazardous waste" and "other". Every year, the community spends about 300,000 yuan ($45,000) on bins and bags to encourage residents to separate their own waste. In 2016, the bags with QR codes appeared. Yu Fuling, Huachuan's Party secretary, said sorting household waste is of great importance. "If trash is not sorted, waste cannot be fully reused or recycled, and the disposal process is harder," Yu said. According to Yu, workers in Huachuan create brochures and give lectures on how to sort garbage, and they organize volunteers to provide door-to-door guidance. Currently, the rate of household garbage sorting in Huachuan is about 70 percent, Yu said. In Zhejiang, 11 cities have run waste-sorting campaigns for households, and the disposal rate of harmless urban household waste has reached 99.3 percent. The province has 110 disposal facilities for household waste and more than 1,800 garbage transfer stations. Another 16 disposal facilities are under construction and will be operational by the end of this year, increasing the province's garbage disposal capacity to 70,000 tons per day. Xinhua plastic wristbands ukblack rubber braceletswristband keychainyouth wristbandsadjustable wristbandsrubber wristbands custom cheap
Several restaurants in Shanghai, including McDonald's and Taoyuan Village, said on Tuesday that their products are completely safe after a recent official spot check found 10 eateries selling substandard youtiao, fried dough sticks usually eaten for breakfast. Officials from the Shanghai Consumer Council raided 29 popular eateries and reported those not changing the cooking oil frequently or producing food of which the amount of certain indicators exceeding the standards to the city's Food and Drug Administration. Five were closed by the FDA for not having a business license, while another five were ordered to come up to code. The five that were ordered to make a change and are still in business are two Xinya Dabao branches on Changyang Road and Xingguo Road as well as eateries at No 456 Xiaomuqiao Road, No 500 Anlong Road and No 777 Siping Road. Youtiao sold in two McDonald's outlets in Yangpu district and a diner in Changning district were found to contain residues of plasticizer, but none exceeded the national upper limit of 1.5 milligrams per kilogram. "We have verified that no plasticizer is added during the production of the fried dough sticks and their packaging sold at all McDonald's restaurants, and consumers can rest assured," McDonald's China said in a statement. "The origin of the plasticizer is being thoroughly investigated," the statement continued. Residual amounts of aluminum of 9.73 milligrams per kg were found in products in a Taoyuan Village outlet in Jing'an district. The restaurant said there was no alum added to its youtiao. The national standard sets an upper limit of 100 milligrams of aluminum per kg in food products. Excessive intake of the substance can impair the nervous and reproductive systems. "The residue may come from the natural aluminum content of water or flour. We will provide the public with accurate information about the source of the substance in the food after a thorough investigation," the restaurant said in a statement. One store in Pudong New Area was selling products containing nearly 10 times the allowed level of aluminum residue. Tests also showed youtiao from a KFC outlet in Yangpu district contained the highest levels of saturated fatty acid - the excessive intake of which can lead to cardiovascular disease and obesity. The average amount of saturated fatty acid contained in samples taken from the 29 restaurants was 3.5 grams, but the KFC product contained 6.8 grams. In addition, branches of Yonghe King were inspected.
