Guangzhou has established 566 recovery sites to collect residents' discarded festival flowers and oranges for environmental protection, said the urban management bureau.

It is the eighth year that the southern metropolis in Guangdong province has offered the service after Spring Festival.

"Many local residents would like to buy some festival good luck flowers and oranges to decorate their homes to expect luckiness in the new year before the festival," said the Guangzhou Bureau of Urban Management and Law Enforcement's statement.

"Now many flowers have begun to fade after the festival, and we are expecting local residents not to discard their potted flowers and oranges randomly to ensure good city sanitation and environment," it said.

The bureau urged local residents not to litter their festival flowers and oranges, and is offering a free, door-to-door recovery service for the city's senior residents and companies and units with large numbers of flowers and oranges.

Those wishing to avail of the service can dial the bureau's special hotline, said the bureau in a statement published Wednesday on its official website.

Last year Guangzhou, the provincial capital, known as "the city of flowers", recovered more than 4,230 metric tons of flowers, pots and mud for disposal after the festival.

People buy flowers at a flower market in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, on Feb 3, 2019. [Photo/IC]