Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, has been striving to become a waste-free city in recent years.

As one of China's 46 key cities for domestic waste classification, Taiyuan has built a number of demonstration sites for domestic waste classification and established a preliminary waste classification system. Awareness of the importance of waste classification has gradually been raised among locals.

The city has invested over 1 billion yuan ($156.94 million) to install waste classification houses, purchase classified waste collection vehicles, and build terminal processing facilities, according to Shi Zhongying, deputy director of Taiyuan urban and rural administration.

The city is transitioning from using sanitary landfills to relying on incineration, with all domestic waste in the main urban area of Taiyuan as well as the counties of Qingxu and Yangqu now being incinerated. 

To deal with post-incineration residue, Taiyuan has also built two incinerator slag disposal plants. Through industrial sorting, all scrap metals in the residue are recovered, and remaining residue is made into roadbed materials or pavement bricks for municipal roads, meaning the city now makes use of 100 percent of residue.