On top of the fines, the district also uses innovative measures to encourage and guide residents to sort waste.

Last year, it initiated special homework assignments to kindergarten, primary and middle school children during their two-month summer break. The students are asked to sort garbage and dump it into designated areas in the community at least once a day.

The move comes as part of local efforts to help families develop a garbage sorting habit.

According to Xu Dunhuang, deputy head of the district's garbage sorting office, 120,000 students from public schools in the district took part in the program last year. This year, another 30,000 students from private schools have signed up.

In this way, environmental protection education can be extended to families and communities, encouraging them to participate in garbage classification and improving their classification accuracy, Xu said.

Another innovative approach the district has taken is the establishment of an online-offline recyclable collection system, which aims to reduce garbage at the source.

Through a built-in app on Alipay, a mobile wallet platform run by Alibaba Group, local residents can sell recyclable trash directly. Offline, special garbage bins for recyclables have been set up, with professional staff emptying them regularly.

At the same time, the model used in developed countries (resource recovery day) is being tested out. In each community, recyclers are assigned to collect recyclables at a fixed time, so that residents can sell them nearby.

Local residents can also sell bulk waste such as sofas and mattresses online, which will later be transported to a large-scale garbage treatment center.

According to Guo Meixia, Party chief of the Ruijing community in Siming, a mechanism featuring bartering kitchen waste for vegetables has also been introduced in the community to mobilize residents to take part in trash sorting.

"The changes in our community are evident after the implementation of the garbage sorting policy, as almost no garbage is seen on the ground and there are much fewer mosquitoes and worms," she said.

"Siming is still working out the kinks in the system," Xu said, pledging that in the next phase more efforts will be made to turn garbage sorting into a "new fad" in the district.