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Q: Is China a leader in recycling?
Is China a big recycling?
some places I have been in the world make you pay a deposit on bottles and you get it back when you return the empty container
as a Kid I would collect cans and soft drink bottles to make some lolly money
I see people sifting through rubbish for anything they can get a buck for
My In-Laws hoard paper and boxes and just about anything else they can hold onto like a Squirrel with nuts
is there a big money in recycling for China? or is it just a way to let people survive?
11 years 12 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
I was told that they make a few maos for each bottle they can bring, so I suppose the money is enough to barely survive.
philbravery:
I heard that there are some people selling used car and truck tyres to a company in China and they turn it into fuel
I think it is more a matter of survival rather than doing something for the environment. I think a lot of poor people are picking up things like plastic bottles, cardboard or styrofoam.
Most of these people fall into the category I would call "scruffy looking old men". They probably have no other choice. And if Mr_spoon is right that one bottle can translate into "a few maos" then it is easy to translate bottles into something eatable at the nearest street food vendor.
Bottles and such, easy to pick up, carry and handle. Lots of bigger things like big chunks of metal appears to be left alone to rust.
They recycle many things but not always in an enviromentally friendly way. I read 50% of th worlds computers end up in one town in China. The place is badly polluted from the run off.
There was an article in eChinacities about the business of recycling. Japan is the biggest and most effective rubbish recycling country and if I recall the article correctly the value was in the billions of dollars! While China has some pollution problems the recycling business is getting up there with Japan and when you have a few million "scruffy looking old men" picking up plastic and cardboard from your bins you will find that it translates into a lot of dollars. Remember all those stories you read about people that deal in salvage and waste recycling and just how wealthy they are (discovered after they have died and left millions to their cats) but dress like beggars? Seems it's true!
So after finishing classes we should all go out and fossick through the rubbish bins and possibly make a few extra RMB right?
I found one article and it was posted on Chistmas Day.
Here's the link: http://news.echinacities.com/detail/65493--Wasting-Away-Where-Will-All-of-Chinas-Trash-Go
I think the UK should take a leaf out of the Chinese book!
Cut welfare to bare survival levels and provide them with a tricycle to collect recyclable trash, which the government can buy from them at 1p per item, (or whatever rate is viable). They then have the choice, survive on the absolute minimum, or work and get more. That may encourage some of the bone-idle life on welfare work-shy scroungers to get off their fat lazy asses!
