Yesterday, 122 Olympic-sponsoring restaurants and 31 Olympic venues in Beijing inaugurated a pilot program to regulate the disposal of their kitchen waste.

Under the new program, they are required to install containers specially designated for nothing but kitchen rubbish.

They must report daily to the municipal or district environment and health departments concerning their daily waste output as well as the collection, transportation and disposal of all refuse.

Only qualified agencies will be allowed to do the collection, transportation and processing of waste.

The refuse will be transported via hermetically sealed vehicles carrying a special transportation license. These vehicles will have a uniform appearance.

By next June all Olympic venues and Olympic-sponsoring restaurants in Beijing will be included in the program.

According to the Beijing municipal administration commission, 10,000 people produce kitchen waste of about 1.22 tons every day. The total daily kitchen waste output is estimated at 1,200 tons for the whole city.

Before the new program, kitchen waste was usually collected together with other garbage. It often leaked while being transported.

Beijing authorities plan to assign more and more kitchen waste under the new regulation based on the success of this pilot program.

(China.org.cn by Yuan Fang, September 14, 2007)