In 2000，the then Ministry of Construction （MOC）identified eight cities as the pilot cities for garbage sortin.Unfortunately，this program failed to produce good results in the subsequent decade and gradually disappeared.As incidents like “garbage around the city” and “garbage incineration” redraw attention in most recent years，both the central and local governments have issued policies in a hope to increase the percentage of garbage sorted.Nonetheless，there remain problems including low resident awareness，a lack of diversified and lasting promotion，insufficient incentives penalties，a lack of a regulatory mechanism，unclear relations between steps of garbage sorting，insufficient inputs from the early stage，and too wide coverage of relevant pilot programs.It is recommended that more efforts be made in terms of promotion，incentives/penalties be duly increased，and a regulatory mechanism and a process information platform be created.When it comes to garbage sorting，China still has a long way to go-it may be one or two more decades，but never only three to five more years.