BEIJING, May 22 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday replied to a letter from volunteers who have been helping with garbage sorting in a residential community in Shanghai, expressing his keen hope to advance garbage sorting.

In the letter, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said he was deeply impressed by the volunteers' enthusiasm for public welfare and their passion for serving the people.

Xi said he was gratified to know that after recent years of publicity, the community has made new progress in garbage sorting, its residents' civility has been enhanced and its environment has become more beautiful.

Garbage sorting and recycling is a systematic project that requires concerted and long-term efforts from all parties, precise measures and active participation of both urban and rural residents, the president said.

Xi said he hopes volunteers could continue to play the unique role in grassroots governance, do a good job of publicity, encourage more residents to develop the habit of sorting garbage, promote it to become a new fashion of low-carbon life, and make contributions to promoting the construction of ecological civilization and improving the level of civilization among the whole society.

Xi has paid a lot of attention to garbage sorting and recycling, and made multiple instructions on the issue.

In recent years, garbage sorting has been carried out in 297 cities at or above the prefecture level in China, with an average coverage rate of 82.5 percent in residential communities.