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China: New Function Added to Alipay / A Clue to Solving the Problem of Household Waste Separation

  • Release date: Oct 11, 2019
  • 1842 Views

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Household Waste Sorting Begins in Shanghai, Complicated and Difficult

Starting in July 2019, Shanghai became the first city in the country to legalize the separation of household waste. Violations will result in a fine of 200 yuan (about 3,150 yen). However, many people say that the separation is complicated and difficult to understand, such as "food waste and used tissues are separate," and "bottles are recyclable waste, but bottles of medicines are treated as dangerous goods. In such a situation, Alipay, a payment application commonly used by all generations of Shanghai people, has introduced a function that can identify garbage using AR. If you scan a piece of trash that you don't know how to sort, it will show you which trash it belongs to. Another function "易代扔" is a mini program that collects your recyclable and bulky trash. Depending on the amount of waste you put out, you can earn eco-points in the "Ant Forest"

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Improving awareness of waste and recycling by adding functions to daily-use apps

The law was enacted after only one month of preparation, when there was no concept of separating garbage for disposal. As a result, there are many people who are confused, and even among Japanese residents who are used to separating garbage, there are some who say that the separation method is too complicated. For example, in the garbage disposal area, you are not allowed to put anything other than food scraps in plastic bags. Therefore, food scraps should not be put in a drainage net, but should be stored in a colander, etc., and then posted (leftover food, etc., should be put directly from the pot into the collection point). In some articles, it is said that the monitoring of violators is strict, but as a consumer, I do not feel that it is strict. There are not always guards at the collection points, and there are no fines for violations. Even if you put your garbage in the wrong bin, the local cleaners will fix it for you. It is believed that the addition of trash-related functions to the app that people use on a daily basis may have the effect of increasing the number of people who are aware of sorting and collecting recyclables.

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This article is co-authored by TNC Lifestyle Researcher (http://lifestyle.tenace.co.jp/) and Intage's Global Researcher. Translated with AI Translator

  • TNCアジアトレンドラボ

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    TNC ASIA Trend Lab

    TNC ASIA Trend Lab is an information organization run by TNC Inc. that researches and shares trends in Asia. It supports corporate marketing activities by finding insights from trends rooted in the lifestyles and habits of local consumers. http://tnc-trend.jp/

  • Intage Inc

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    Intage Inc.

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