During the National Day holiday, Beijing's eight major railway stations saw a massive surge in passenger traffic as travelers flocked for tourism and family visits, generating enormous amounts of household waste in the process. According to estimates from the Beijing Municipal Management Committee for Key Station Areas, the average daily garbage clearance volume at the eight stations during the National Day holiday rose by approximately 25 tonnes compared to normal periods, an increase of nearly 20%. Recent visits to the eight stations and their hubs confirmed that waste at all stations is cleared on a same-day basis, with no garbage accumulation or odor issues on site. Behind the "clean as you go" experience at the capital's first-stop gateway lies a comprehensive garbage collection and transport system.

Front-End Collection: Trash Bins Never More Than Two-Thirds Full

During the National Day holiday, walking into Beijing West Railway Station, where food outlets and gift shops are densely packed and trains arrive every few minutes, garbage generation is substantial. Yet the station remains spacious, bright, clean, and odor-free. The Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Comprehensive Transportation Hub, which just opened at the end of last year, has installed more than 200 sets of trash bins, with disposal points available every few dozen meters in high-traffic areas. Some travelers wonder: where does the garbage they throw away actually end up? The first to handle waste are the cleaning staff. Zhou Junbo, head of garbage sorting at the Tongzhou Station office of the Beijing Municipal Management Committee for Key Station Areas, explained that during routine patrols, cleaners immediately bag and place old garbage onto push carts once they find a trash bin more than two-thirds full, replace it with a new liner, and once enough has accumulated, transport it to the nearest temporary storage point. During the National Day holiday, Beijing West Railway Station also intensified trash bin clearing and cleaning, with patrol inspections every 15 minutes in key areas to prevent overflow and littering. At a garbage temporary storage point inside the waiting hall of Beijing Tongzhou Station, what stands out are the larger-capacity "four-color trash bins," the standard configuration for such points. Workers are busy sorting recyclable waste, kitchen waste, hazardous waste, and other waste into separate bins before loading them onto collection vehicles for transport to the garbage room on the underground garage level. The hub normally maintains 20 temporary garbage storage points, most tucked away in inconspicuous corners to minimize direct contact between waste handling and passengers. The front-end garbage collection setup is largely "designed on demand." It was noted that in the city corridor connecting the subway exit to the railway entrance at the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Comprehensive Transportation Hub, there are more trash bins on the east side than on the west side. Zhou Junbo explained that because the east side of the city corridor has a shorter walking distance and higher passenger flow, more bins were designed for that area. The placement of trash bins is also carefully considered, generally positioned about 10 meters from waiting seats. "They need to be within travelers' line of sight, but not too close, which would make passengers uncomfortable." Additionally, stations dynamically adjust the number of active temporary storage points based on passenger flow to improve efficiency.

Transfer and Compaction: Smart Weighing Feeds Data into the Database

Garbage generated at the stations requires multi-stage relay transfer and disposal. Few of the travelers passing through notice that in the northeast corner of Beijing West Railway Station, a smart garbage processing center of about 120 square meters operates around the clock. Train car waste, station trash bin waste, and merchant business waste are all first concentrated at this "transfer station." Every day around 3 a.m., transfer vehicles have already delivered the overnight waste from Beijing West Railway Station to the garbage processing center. Every 10 minutes or so, electric tricycles, four-wheelers, and hand carts bring collected station waste here for temporary storage. A green electric four-wheel garbage transfer vehicle slowly enters the facility, drives onto the weighing area, and the screen immediately displays a net weight of "422 kilograms." Liu Qun, a staff member at the center, pointed to the square area and said that beneath the vehicle is a floor scale. After weighing, the data is recorded in real time and automatically transmitted to the database without manual supervision. The collected data can also effectively guide "off-peak" scheduling of regional garbage collection operations. After weighing is complete, the transfer vehicle backs into position, aligns its rear with the compaction equipment, and a mechanical telescopic rod flips and lifts the garbage bin, causing waste to fall into the compactor. A worker presses an operation button, and the compactor's pushing head presses the garbage into a container, compressing it into a cube and greatly reducing its volume. The "slimmed-down" waste is stored in a large garbage container four to five meters long. Once the large container is full, a hook-lift truck hoists it onto a larger vehicle and transports it to the Majialou Transfer Station for disposal according to regulations. During the National Day holiday, the Beijing West Railway Station garbage processing center added three staff members responsible for sorting, compaction, and sanitation disinfection, and also pre-positioned emergency backup containers to immediately divert waste when regular containers reach capacity, preventing accumulation and overflow.

Distinct Highlights: Stations Guide Passengers to Sort and Dispose of Waste

On the east side of the south hub exit at Beijing Fengtai Railway Station, a bright green smart recycling machine stands out with its fresh, eco-friendly design. This is Beijing's first smart garbage sorting and recycling machine in a railway station area, first deployed in May this year, capable of collecting recyclable waste from travelers at any time. Below the machine's operation screen and deposit slot, recyclables such as paper, plastic, textiles, and metal are categorized. For every kilogram of recyclables deposited, travelers receive 0.6 yuan in environmental rewards. At Beijing Railway Station square, many merchants operate businesses. Garbage collection staff arrange scheduled door-to-door pickups with these merchants, transferring waste to sealed recycling stations six times a day, ensuring neither excessive disruption nor prolonged garbage accumulation. Chaoyang Railway Station has set up regular information booths, continuously providing consultation and education to passing travelers through visual and engaging formats. The "sky screen" smart display in the transfer hall of Beijing South Railway Station also features garbage sorting publicity, capturing travelers' attention with an immersive large-screen visual experience. The Beijing North Railway Station area prints household garbage sorting guidelines in picture form on custom trash bins in the square, guiding travelers to sort and dispose of waste quickly and conveniently. At the station squares of Beijing West and Qinghe railway stations, among the hurrying crowds, a robot called "Smart Helper Cart" attracts considerable attention, carrying a sorting trash bin on its back and dynamically on duty for more than 8 hours a day in the square, changing the traditional method of travelers "searching for bins." The robot is equipped with LiDAR and depth vision sensors that can identify pedestrians, vehicle traffic, and obstacles in real time, actively slowing down and avoiding obstacles in dense passenger flow scenarios with highly agile movements. "Please sort your garbage into the bins, travel with civility..." The "Smart Helper Cart" robot is equipped with an intelligent voice system that regularly broadcasts garbage sorting knowledge. This holiday, the robot also transformed into a smart "luggage assistant," carrying travelers' large bags and, once its smart load-following function is activated, following travelers along their walking routes.