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

Students at a primary school in Hefei, Anhui province, compete in a game to better understand garbage sorting. [Photo/Xinhua]

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.