Ningbo, along with four other cities of Huzhou, Jinhua, Hangzhou and Taizhou in Zhejiang, was recently rated as a provincial excellent city in term of garbage sorting in 2019. 

Ningbo's municipal regulations on domestic waste management took effect on Oct 1 2019. The city's garbage classification standards require residents to separate kitchen waste, recyclable waste, hazardous waste and other waste.

The city's move to implement mandatory household garbage sorting regulations has showed strong results.

The regulations stipulate that individuals who do not properly separate their garbage may face a fine of 20 to 500 yuan ($72.4). 

To date, fines worth 180,000 yuan have been issued to individuals and institutions in the city for breaching the regulations. 

According to data released by the Ningbo municipal office for garbage classification, the city produced a total of 4.2793 million tons of urban and rural household waste in 2019, an increase of 2.52 percent, the lowest growth rate the city has seen in the past five years. 

Last year, the city collected 56,200 tons of recycling at more than 1,630 designated sites. 

Garbage sorting has been promoted in all urban areas in Ningbo and 88.5 percent of rural areas.

In 2017, China's State Council said that the country should be recycling 35 percent of household garbage by 2020, and selected 46 Chinese cities, including Ningbo, to take the lead in implementing the new system.