Garbage classification is also used for better recycling of resources.

"We hope these measures can help control pollution and save resources," said He Dongyan, president of Tianjin Eco-city Investment & Development Co Ltd, the operator of the eco-city.

"We will further extend the sustainable development mode and make it in line with market mechanisms," he added.

Chen Jingxiang, a resident in Junliangcheng town in Tianjin's Dongli district, said he was happy to move into a new apartment in the Junhongyuan residential community.

"We lived in bungalows before, where life was hard and inconvenient," said Chen. "Now we have moved into the new building and the environment is far better and we can easily take buses to downtown Tianjin."

Junliangcheng is southeast of Tianjin's downtown area. It is one of the pilot project areas for the Tianjin initiative to urbanize small towns. The 1,100-hectare township will eventually be home to 150,000 residents, according to Dongli district government plans.

To date, about 23,000 people in Junliangcheng have moved into newly built apartments.

By the end of last year, Tianjin had invested 150 billion yuan in building residential facilities in 49 pilot towns.

About 44 million square meters of apartments for farmers are under construction and 23 million sq m have been completed for 450,000 farmers who have moved into new homes.

With the improvement of infrastructure and environment in former rural areas, Tianjin's urbanization rate has reached 82 percent.

By 2015, Tianjin hopes to transfer another 1 million rural residents to small towns, which is expected to boost the urbanization rate to 90 percent.

Tianjin aims to be global service center	Tianjin enjoys benefits of hosting Summer Davos