A five-star hotel in Shanghai’s Jing’an district has received the city’s first rectification notice from the Shanghai Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau for violating the new waste classification policy after it went into effect on Monday.

During a surprise check carried out by the bureau, officers discovered used tissue inside a bin for recyclables at the Swissôtel Grand Shanghai, a definite no-no. Used tissue is not recyclable and should go inside the dry garbage bin instead.

For that, the Swissôtel was let off with a rectification notice (the first in Shanghai according to Xinmin Evening News), but if the situation continues when the officials come to check again next month, they will be fined between 5,000 and 50,000 yuan.

A shopping mall located in the same district, Crystal Galleria, also received a warning because authorities found both recyclable and wet garbage inside the dry garbage bin.

Also, they were using green bins, which is not among the allowed colors for the four official classifications.

Under the new rule, rubbish must be sorted into four different colors of rubbish bins: blue for recyclables, red for hazardous waste, brown for wet garbage, and black for dry garbage.

To be clear, all food waste is considered wet garbage and needs to be emptied out into the brown bin sans plastic bag.

Used paper napkins, toilet paper and plastic bags are NOT considered “wet” and need to go into the black bins for dry garbage.

Is everyone clear now how this gets done?