THE LEGISLATURE of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, recently reviewed a draft regulation on garbage sorting in the city. Compared with previous versions, the current draft highlights residents' role in garbage sorting. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

The draft regulation in Guangzhou has established several principles: Those who make more garbage will pay more for the disposal of it, while those who sort their garbage will pay less than those who don't.

That's giant progress compared with the current practice of many cities, which collect the same fee for garbage disposal from every household. That practice is unfair because households that produce less garbage have to pay the same fee as those who produce more. Besides, it fails to encourage people to produce less garbage or sort their garbage.