When your pen is broken, the battery in your toy runs out, or you have some leftover food (厨余食物). What do you do with these things? You will probably throw them into one bin.

But actually, all of these pieces of trash need to be sorted (分类) separately.

Garbage sorting is a big issue worldwide. In recent years, some Chinese cities have been working hard on it.

Shanghai has worked with Alipay (支付宝) to create a “green account (绿色账户)” service for its residents. Account holders get points by correctly sorting their garbage. Through the Alipay app, they can exchange the points for milk, phone cards and other products. The city is asking all of its residents to sort their garbage into four groups: wet, recyclable, harmful and dry.

Wet waste is also known as household waste. “They are things you don’t want, but that pigs can eat,” Guangzhou Daily explained.

Paper, metal (金属), glass and other things that can be reused are recyclable waste.

Harmful waste includes things like medicine, batteries and fluorescent bulbs (荧光灯泡).

Finally, any waste that’s not wet, recyclable or harmful will go in the “dry waste” bin.

Many other Chinese cities are also using this method to sort their garbage. For example, Shenzhen has been sorting its garbage into the same four groups since 2012. Students there also receive waste-sorting guidebooks that they must study.

China is improving its waste-sorting efforts. There is still a long way to go. But it’s never too late to learn how to sort your trash properly and protect the environment.

If you don’t sort your garbage, all of it will go to a landfill (垃圾填理场) and be buried together. These landfills can take up large areas of ground that could have been used for planting trees or crops. The electronic waste you throw away, such as batteries, can pollute the soil and groundwater (地下水). Other pieces of garbage, like the metal part of a pen, can be used to make other things if they are properly recycled.

Most of us see holidays as a time for fun. 25-year-old Peter White from Arizona, USA, however, recently chose to spend his holidays making the planet a little cleaner.

Peter has been fighting back against rubbish for quite some time now. So when he decided to take a road trip across the US to see family and friends, he came up with a creative idea to help out the planet, too.

“My name is Peter and I’m about to drive across the country and pick up rubbish,” he said in an online video. “If you’d like to donate(捐赠) $15, I’ll pick up a big whole bag of rubbish for you, and I will send you a picture of the bag with your name and the city you help clean up on it, so you’ll feel really good about yourself and the country will be cleaner. Please help me and the planet.”

Peter’s story soon got quite a bit of attention. Lots of people began following his journey online and making donations. He quickly raised $4,950—and that money did not go to waste. Soon he drove over 80 hours through 12 states in the US and collected over 330 bags of rubbish.

“I’m not going to be able to pick up everything, but if everyone starts picking up some on walks or runs, that’s where the magic is,” Peter said.

Peter received much help along the way. Many strangers helped him fill up the rubbish bags, and he couldn’t be more thankful. Peter’s trip shows just how much can be done to be friendly to the planet when people work together.

When looking at a pair of old chopsticks, most people would see nothing but waste. ▲

In 2016, Felix Back, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia, Canada, found out people threw away about 100,000 pairs of chopsticks every day in Vancouver alone. He felt he needed to do something. So he started the company Chop Value in the same year. The company collected used chopsticks from restaurants, schools and shopping centers in Canada and the US and turned them into furniture and other artworks. Now in its seventh year with the rapid growth of the company, Bock employs (雇佣) 40 people, and using his special methods of steam and press machines, he has recycled 32 million pairs of chopsticks.

Bock takes pride in his work. And he hopes the idea behind Chop Value will help people rethink what they see as waste. “I believe every small action can help,” he said. “And I am happy that my business provides a new way for people.” Hundreds of restaurants across North America pay a small sum of money to Bock for the recycling of their used chopsticks. Bock doesn’t stop there. Now he is busy taking his business to more countries and has set up factories for recycling local wood like chopsticks in 10 countries.