HAVING just been hit by a sharp pricehike in water rates, locals will soon suffer another blow to their household budgets - a new fee for disposal of their rubbish.

"Does it really mean we will have to pay for throwing out our rubbish?" asked Dai Guorong, a local white-collar who can hardly believe the city will actually impose the charge.

Although many foreign countries make residents pay for rubbish disposal, either through a special tax or by charging a direct fee, it has been a different matter in China.

The cost of garbage treatment has always been paid by the government and having become accustomed to that "free lunch", the new charge has stirred up public controversy.

A survey conducted jointly by the Shanghai Evening Post and the Shanghai Online portal revealed that most people over 35 found it hard to accept the new policy. Even among the younger generation who can understand the reasons behind the government's action, the amount they felt willing to pay was around 3 yuan (US$0.36) or, at most, no more than 10 yuan (US$1.2) a month for each household.

However, the government intends to charge between 10 and 20 yuan a month for a nuclear family.

"That is too high, as every month we still need to pay the sanitation fee to the property management company for cleaning the residential complex," said Yan Jie, a local IT engineer. "If added together, that will come to a large amount."

However, despite all the pressure, the government seems to have made up its mind to end the "free lunch" on garbage disposal.

The first step targets local enterprises. Starting next month, all businesses, institutions and government department will be charged for their rubbish disposal at a rate of about 200 yuan (US$24.20) per ton.

Under the previous system, enterprises needed to pay only a collection and transportation fee for their rubbish, about 60 yuan (US$7.2) per ton.

Pollution source

The total cost of treatment used to come out of the government's budget. Although the government's budgetary allocation for sanitation work has been rising annually, it now cannot meet the demand caused by the increasing amount of rubbish being generated in Shanghai.

Statistics show that last year the city's domestic waste totalled

6.45 million tons with local households being responsible for 55.1 per cent and businesses 37.1 per cent.

And every day, more than

6,000 tons of the city's daily output of 16,040 tons of rubbish is not receiving proper treatment. It is simply being piled up.

"The smell of the rubbish not only affects people's lives directly, it also pollutes the environment when liquid from the rubbish gets into the soil and then pollutes the waterways," said Shen Caixing, an official with the Shanghai City Appearance and Environment Sanitation Bureau (CAESB).

Some two thirds of the city's garbage is transported to landfills to be buried. But the two biggest landfills in the city - at Laogang and Limin - do not meet the basic national standard on prevention of possible environmental pollution.

Currently the city has only one incineration site and one biochemical treatment plant in which rubbish can be recycled, either by generating power through burning or by being turned into fertilizer through biochemical treatment. But the daily capacity of the two plants is only 2,000 tons of rubbish, less than 15 per cent of the total produced every day.

The gap between the ever increasing amount of rubbish and low-standard treatment facilities is already a major headache for the city.

"To tackle the problem, the charging of a garbage fee is necessary," Shen said.

"Actually early in 2002, the central government issued a notice on the charging of fees for domestic waste disposal. Since then, more than 100 cities in the country have begun charging for rubbish treatment." Shanghai will be the latest to follow the practice.

Unwilling to pay

However, it is not certain that charging fees will solve the problem.

Take Beijing: each household has been asked to pay 3 yuan a month since 1999. However, despite the small sum only 20 per cent of residents are paying the fee, with most being unco-operative.

That is also the situation many experts are worried might occur in Shanghai.

"First of all, taking money from door to door involves a big labour force," said Chen Yuqun, a professor from the Shanghai Ecology and Economics Institute. He estimated that the expenses of paying fee collectors will consume at least 10 per cent of the total revenue collected.

Reports from Beijing indicate that the money collected barely covered the cost of collecting it, let alone being available for use on improving garbage disposal facilities.

"As the level of environmental awareness among local residents is still low, there is no effective way to have every household pay the fee," he said.

The disposal fee is different from that of water or gas. The government can punish those who try to avoid payment by cutting off the water or power. "Yet it is impossible to forbid one from throwing out rubbish," Chen said.

"If the fees become a burden on local residents instead of being a real help in fixing the problem, it is better not to charge."

An even bigger worry to some experts is that charging for rubbish disposal may only lead people to throw out more rubbish.

According to Xu Chuanyang, director of CAESB, it was impossible to design flexible charges for each household depending on the amount of rubbish they generate, as the work of calculating the individual amounts of rubbish was too complicated and time-consuming and would involve a larger number of fee collectors. So, for the time being, the government is inclined to set a fixed amount for each household regardless of the amount of rubbish they throw out.

"But that is by no means a good approach," said Zhao Youcai, a professor with Tongji University. "It is possible that after making their payments, residents will feel even more free in disposing of their rubbish which will actually increase the amount of waste generated."

In his eyes, the city's decision to impose the charge hasn't been thought through. The lack of success in other cities is proof of this.

"Anyway, there are still many people in the city who can hardly make ends meet and for the sake of fairness, it is better to wait until there is a flexible system of charging before implementing the fees," he said.

However, as Shen and many other officials pointed out, the most important aim of the new fee-paying system is to enhance locals' environmental awareness.

"Most people in the city rarely bother themselves with thinking about the treatment of their rubbish after they have thrown it out and while that attitude prevails, the amount of rubbish will never cease to increase," Shen said.