Garbage-sorting games used to win over Shanghai's younger generation

Authorities attempt get the waste-management message across via fun activities

As Shanghai prepared to introduce mandatory garbage sorting on July 1, games and toys that explored fun ways to spread information about the practice were used to encourage younger people to take heed.

A 15-second video of a virtual reality game went viral on Chinese social media during the run-up to the introduction of the new rules. In the video, players wearing VR headsets saw four different types of trash can in front of them, and they had to throw different types of garbage that appeared into the appropriate buckets to score.

The game debuted at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai at the end of last month. Although it was not the only VR game in the venue, visitors lined up around the booth to explore it because of the garbage-sorting theme.

"As a Shanghai resident, I am in great need of this game. Maybe I won't need to check how to categorize each piece of garbage on my phone while going through all my garbage every day if I play this game more often," said Zhou Zhou, a young Shanghai resident.

Some social media users in Shanghai have complained about the difficulty of sorting different types of garbage.

Wu Xia, founder and CEO of VitrellaCore, the company that created the game, said the idea was to provide an interesting way of learning about garbage sorting.

"It's simple and easy to understand. Residents can practice sorting garbage without actually going through their trash, and it is a more effective method than using paper materials when training volunteers," Wu said.