Children in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, learn how to sort garbage. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

The government of Zhejiang held a meeting on household garbage sorting on June 11. According to the announcement made at the meeting, Zhejiang aims to roll out mandatory household garbage sorting regulations throughout the province before the end of 2022.

Two cities in Zhejiang province - Hangzhou and Ningbo - have already been listed among 46 Chinese cities to spearhead the mandatory garbage sorting system.

Local authorities stressed that garbage sorting is an important reform in improving residents' living environment.

A report assessing the work done by cities in Zhejiang in implementing garbage sorting regulations was also released at the meeting. Hangzhou was among the five cities recognized.

Xu Lin, head expert at the Zhejiang Institute for Public Policy Research, said that now is the time for the rest of Zhejiang to follow suit, referring to the reasons behind the implementation of the mandatory household garbage sorting system.

A resident in Hangzhou puts garbage into a designated rubbish bin. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Zhejiang produced 37.94 million tons of household waste last year, ranking 3rd among Chinese cities. Discarded packages made up of a large part of that, as Zhejiang handled more than 1.3 billion delivery packages last year, accounting for 11.8 percent of the total in the world, Xu added.

According to the plans released at the meeting, Zhejiang intends to implement a system charging residents for household waste disposal. If residents fail to classify household waste correctly, they will be charged.

Officials also proposed forming a community administration as a method to motivate more residents to join the waste-classification campaign.