From Trash to Treasure: Is there a cure for China’s trash problem?
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 9:50 am
Beautiful sunshine, neighbors walking dogs and children playing in a modest-sized garden is a description of an idyllic start to everyday life in China. It’s only 6:45 am and taking out the garbage is one of the most important aspects of my morning ritual. I want to adopt my Western military-style habit of sorting my plastic from cardboard, and my glass from paper.
But this time I’m in China and I can’t because there is only one bin outside my apartment building, not even a second for recyclables. I have no other choice but to commit the deadly sin and put all my rubbish into just a single bin.
When making my way, I catch sight of an elderly woman uk phone number database rummaging through the garbage bins picking out plastic bottles, polystyrene, and cardboard. Among a handful, it appears that becoming a soldier of China’s army of waste pickers is a full-time occupation.
Waste collectors in China
Self-made waste collectors in China
These elderly could well be working either as part of city services paid by local governments or self-employed informal waste collectors. The duties of waste pickers should not be dismissed as unimportant, because they represent a demand for more improved, developed and diverse solutions to China’s ‘garbage sickness’.
Though to understand the extent of the opportunity, this requires an evaluation of the true scale of the issue. The trash problem is not limited to a mere handful of bins outside apartment buildings. Recyclable materials, sometimes in mass quantities, tossed away by shop-owners and keepers alike, are lining the streets without thinking about its destination or just assuming that eventually someone will ‘pick and collect’.
HOW DOES CHINA MEASURE UP TO EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS IN TERMS OF WASTE MANAGEMENT
This culture of dumping waste in such a casual manner is different from that in England where each household is allocated three bins for recyclable waste, including glass, plastic, and cardboard.
Across the globe, countries are performing even better, for example, Belgium, Europe’s leading waste champion, where it is not uncommon to see many different bins in which to dispose of recyclable products. Displaying an arc of prismatic colors including white, green, brown, blue, yellow, red and black containers intended for specific types of waste lining many streets, such vibrant colors imposing on the backdrop of towns are a bold display of the country’s efforts to reduce waste.
Such an array of flamboyant colors is a rare occurrence of the streets in China with waste pickers in Nanjing, a city of 9 million people, recovering as much as eighty percent of the city’s recyclables, around 500,000 metric tons, in 2015. (Source)
An impressive range of waste disposal units set in a local school in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
An impressive range of waste disposal units set in a local school in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
Although efforts to recycle are not wholly non-existent as evidence suggests that there are indeed pro-active attempts to combat the problem. Educational establishments, for example, encourage recycling actively by placing such disposal units in schools and universities. Research funding at universities has brought fruitful results, with waste-sorting robot arms currently being tried and tested by the Beijing Institute of Precision Mechatronics and Controls (source). Moreover, Western businesses, such as the Swedish-owned company H&M, have ramped up efforts in China by establishing a service to drop-off old clothes in-store.
But this time I’m in China and I can’t because there is only one bin outside my apartment building, not even a second for recyclables. I have no other choice but to commit the deadly sin and put all my rubbish into just a single bin.
When making my way, I catch sight of an elderly woman uk phone number database rummaging through the garbage bins picking out plastic bottles, polystyrene, and cardboard. Among a handful, it appears that becoming a soldier of China’s army of waste pickers is a full-time occupation.
Waste collectors in China
Self-made waste collectors in China
These elderly could well be working either as part of city services paid by local governments or self-employed informal waste collectors. The duties of waste pickers should not be dismissed as unimportant, because they represent a demand for more improved, developed and diverse solutions to China’s ‘garbage sickness’.
Though to understand the extent of the opportunity, this requires an evaluation of the true scale of the issue. The trash problem is not limited to a mere handful of bins outside apartment buildings. Recyclable materials, sometimes in mass quantities, tossed away by shop-owners and keepers alike, are lining the streets without thinking about its destination or just assuming that eventually someone will ‘pick and collect’.
HOW DOES CHINA MEASURE UP TO EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS IN TERMS OF WASTE MANAGEMENT
This culture of dumping waste in such a casual manner is different from that in England where each household is allocated three bins for recyclable waste, including glass, plastic, and cardboard.
Across the globe, countries are performing even better, for example, Belgium, Europe’s leading waste champion, where it is not uncommon to see many different bins in which to dispose of recyclable products. Displaying an arc of prismatic colors including white, green, brown, blue, yellow, red and black containers intended for specific types of waste lining many streets, such vibrant colors imposing on the backdrop of towns are a bold display of the country’s efforts to reduce waste.
Such an array of flamboyant colors is a rare occurrence of the streets in China with waste pickers in Nanjing, a city of 9 million people, recovering as much as eighty percent of the city’s recyclables, around 500,000 metric tons, in 2015. (Source)
An impressive range of waste disposal units set in a local school in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
An impressive range of waste disposal units set in a local school in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
Although efforts to recycle are not wholly non-existent as evidence suggests that there are indeed pro-active attempts to combat the problem. Educational establishments, for example, encourage recycling actively by placing such disposal units in schools and universities. Research funding at universities has brought fruitful results, with waste-sorting robot arms currently being tried and tested by the Beijing Institute of Precision Mechatronics and Controls (source). Moreover, Western businesses, such as the Swedish-owned company H&M, have ramped up efforts in China by establishing a service to drop-off old clothes in-store.