What’s trending?

Multiple residential complexes in the city of Xi’an, in western China, are facing tightening restrictions over when and where they can throw out their rubbish. The new regulations are part of a wider drive to improve recycling efforts across the country.

The news has gone viral across Chinese social media, beyond the people directly affected, seen as an example of a “one-cut” (一刀切) policy, a Chinese term that roughly translates as “one-size-fits-all”, referring to those policies that impose a single rule on everyone irrespective of their circumstances.

What’s the story?

Residents in some Xi’an complexes found their fixed times and places to throw out trash not just inconvenient but unworkable. In one complex in the Qujiang District residents were told they could only throw out rubbish between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. For the rest of the day, the garbage collection points would be locked. Some residents complained that people who went to work early in the morning and got home late at night would not have time to take the trash out at all.

It is not the first time that Xi’an policymakers have come under the spotlight for their “one-cut” policies. Earlier in June, the local government ordered all shops on one street to change their signage to one unified style. Business owners said (link in Chinese) they were issued three different “unified styles” in a single month.

What are people saying online?

Some people on Chinese social media were heavily critical of the restrictions, pointing out the drawbacks of a bureaucracy that creates one-size-fits-all rules. One popular comment read that “I can only conclude that the restrictions were only made according to the officers’ timetables.”

Some also said it was not an effective policy at all. “If you lock the place up, then whoever wants to throw out trash will merely pile their garbage at the door. Not everyone is civilized enough to follow the rules. It will become a burden for the cleaning workers,” read one comment.

But some social media users outside Xi’an, who face similar rubbish collection rules, fully support the regulations. “In Shanghai, this has been the case for years. I find it quite clean in my housing complex,” read one popular comment.