The administrative committee of urban management of Guangzhou, which has 20 vacancies for garbage classifiers, attracted more than 200 candidates on its first recruitment day in the Guangdong provincial capital on Monday.

It means that more than 10 candidates will have to compete for each vacancy.

The southern metropolis, which is now being surrounded by rapidly increasing household waste, plans to introduce a new garbage-sorting system to help reduce the amount of trash, said Bao Lunjun, chief engineer of the Guangzhou administrative committee of urban management.

To this end, the city's government decided to advertize for garbage classifiers in the city's 12 districts and suburban towns before the end of the year.

Four streets in Tianhe district, in a commercial center in Guangzhou, took the lead in advertizing 20 garbage-classifying positions this week.

According to Bao, Guangzhou plans to be able to deal with more than 15,000 tons of garbage a day to help settle the garbage crisis by 2015. The city can now handle about 12,000 tons of garbage a day.

"Sorting the garbage for recycling will be an effective way to reduce the amount of garbage in the future," Bao said.

Yu Shangfeng, an official in charge of the garbage-sorting department under the committee, said: "Every neighborhood will have garbage classifiers to help sort the garbage, guide locals to classify the waste and promote the city's garbage-sorting system." Currently the committee offers a monthly salary of at least 4,000 yuan ($635) to a garbage classifier.

All the candidates are required to be college graduates, or above, said Yu.

And now the candidates that have applied for the vacancies include postgraduates, he added.

One young man who applied said the salary of 4,000 yuan was attractive to many people, even university graduates, at a time when the country's economic situation was not so good.

"The salary is more than what many migrant workers in the city earn," said the man, who revealed only his surname, Liang.

"Garbage classifiers for the city government are government employees, who can enjoy stable income and other social benefits," he said.

Zheng Fenming, director of the Scientific Development and Public Policy Center at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said recruiting garbage classifiers could certainly play a role in developing the city's garbage-sorting and recycling industries.

"But authorities should pay even greater attention to raising residents' environmental protection awareness and to encouraging most of the city's residents to sort their garbage before it reaches the rubbish bin," Zheng said.

In addition to making efforts to promote the garbage-sorting system, those who have classified the garbage at home should be rewarded while those who refuse to sort the garbage should be required to pay higher rubbish fees, he said.

Many residents have also welcomed the efforts to sort garbage.

Chen Guangchong, a resident in Yuexiu district, said the city government is expected to introduce an effective and environmentally friendly method to help cope with rapidly growing amounts of garbage.

"And garbage classifiers can certainly play a part in helping introduce the garbage-sorting system and contribute to the city's garbage-recycling industry," Chen said.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn