Monthly Recycling Days in Beijing
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 2:29A program that brings back memories of dragging down my own recylables to the curb, the China.org articleBeijing sets ‘recycling’ day and offers door-to-door collection highlights a new effort by BEijing to increase recylcing in the capital city.
On Saturday municipal authorities set up 18 collection spots in various city communities and made public contact numbers for collection companies designated for each district. Now residents can enjoy door-to-door service by making a phone appointment with collection agencies.
Operationally, I am not sure of the economics given dumpster divers have a significantly reduce cost to them though, a mainstay of Shanghai and many other cities, but the article does address the size of the existing network:
Beijing has more than 3,000 collection centers for recyclable waste, covering both urban and suburban districts.
From an education perspective though, this is a program that (like in the US) could net huge gains not only in volume, but also in externalities:
Each collection spot had received around one tonne of waste apiece by late Saturday, said the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce, co-organizer of the campaign. But a large number of Beijing residents’ buildings do not have separate recyclable waste facilities and residents only occasionally sell the waste to individual dealers.
Duan said the “recycling” day and its connected services would be “gradually” expanded to suburban districts and cover almost all resident communities by 2015.
It is also planned to reward residents and organizations who regularly turn in recyclable wastes.
So.. perhaps not the most efficient manner to promote recylcing, and sure to put a few of those independent dealers (PC for dumpster divers) out of work, but if the education portion of this program can be ramps up and really drive more people to begin using and believing in formal systems.. then that will be a major victory.
Adam Daniel Mezei says:
September 1st, 2009 at 3:09 am
But will this clean up the visuals and the optics as well? Yes, yes, I know we’ve got to start somewhere…but the more important thing is that when you walk down the street, will there be visible signs to the average passer-by that waste has been removed, or will there still be the thousands of plastic bags, bottle-caps, glass remnants, and other detritus that plagues most Chinese city streets…otherwise, what’s the point?
Yes, I know, we’ve got to start somewhere…
Rich says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
Yeah.. there is an educational component that one would hope is learned through this. that throwing one’s crap into the middle of the street is not recycling. That’s littering.
Adam Daniel Mezei says:
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
I haven’t actually seen people chucking stuff into the alley with my own eyes, Rich, but I hear all about it, and something would rankle me to my core were I to spy that at a national heritage site, with azure waters, blue skies, tall mountains, and an idyllic breeze…combined with little kids and old people tossing peanut snack and ice cream sandwich wrappers around the grounds without a care in the world. Have you ever caught this on camera?
Rich says:
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:58 am
Adam.
search for “Shanghai is my trash can” on this site. I have 3-4 posts where people randomly chuck stuff out their windows.
Not trying to make this a cultural statement by any means, but if you know that for 20 years people have been coming by to clean up the street that you just threw a bag of trash onto.. it becomes a habit.
So, hopefully, this action will reverse some of that
R
Adam Daniel Mezei says:
September 13th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I’ve had a chance to see some of those pics, Rich, and sorry I didn’t let you know sooner. (Note to self: I should subscribe to your comments feed as well so I know when you get back!). By the way, I’ll be in Shanghai for a couple of weeks at the beginning of Nov., and I was wondering if it would be possible to meet you with @andreea2xe somewhere in town. Just a thought…I’m at adamdanielmezei@gmail.com by the way.