Anybody sorts garbage?

As mentioned in my book Toxic Capitalism, we have a big problem in sorting garbage in Beijing, and probably everywhere in China.
Despite the good intentions of the city to provide some marked garbage containers to every household in some buildings, few people do sort garbage and even if they do, the recyclers jump on the building’s garbage containers to remove whatever they are interested in. While that is not that bad, they start messing up the containers and anyway, once the garbage is collected it ends up all together.

Beijing admits a defeat

See article dated 8 November 2016 “Why, after 16 years, is it still so difficult to sort garbage?”, by China Daily:
China Daily article
I quote the full article as it lays bare the problem:

The Beijing Municipal Commission of City Management recently said that some communities will pioneer garbage sorting, with the household waste being collected at different times of the day according to the type of trash it is. However, as Beijing Youth Daily points out, Beijing has been listed as a pioneer city for garbage sorting for 16 years and little progress has been made:
Some communities complain that their residents know little about how to sort garbage. If that’s true, it is really sad news because Beijing was listed as one of eight pioneering cities for garbage sorting in 2000. Why is it so difficult for residents to sort garbage 16 years after it became a policy?
It is unfair to say the government has done nothing. On the contrary, the municipal governments of the eight cities have invested heavily in improving the hardware. In Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, as well as the other five pioneer cities, garbage bins for sorting purposes can be seen in communities. However, people simply put their garbage in them without sorting it.
There are two main problems. First, the municipal governments have not done enough to educate people about how to sort their garbage and what kind of waste should be put into which garbage bin. People have been asked to sort garbage, but nobody has actually shown them how to sort it or explained why it is important for them to do so.
Second, the waste management authorities do not take the matter seriously, either. Even when households do sort their garbage, when the trash trucks come the garbage is simply mixed together and transported away.
Further, the garbage processing industrial chain is far from complete. Most, if not all, of the garbage collected from communities will be burnt or buried, instead of being recycled.
So the solution lies in raising residents’ awareness of the importance of garbage sorting, more strictly ensuring the garbage collectors keep the garbage sorted, and encouraging more people to join the recycling industry. Only with comprehensive measures will garbage sorting become a success.

Worse: toxic waste

If there is a big problem in sorting garbage, worse is how to dispose of “toxic waste”, as I also mentioned in my book.
Toxic waste here: batteries of all kind and printer ink cartridges, just to name the ones I have again collected over the years.
Problem is simple: there is no place to dispose of it. I asked my (Chinese) wife and she also has no idea. Even if there are some isolated collection boxes in supermarkets (never seen any anyway!), they are too small to dispose of the cartridges. As for the energy-saving lamps, I have given up since long and throw them in the garbage. In our compound we do not have any special containers anyway.
So, Beijing citizens and your children, be warned:
“I will soon let you bury my toxic waste into your landfills to pollute the environment for your kids.”
Sorry, no other solution.

Food supplements containers

Here in the video I show some of the containers for food supplements that most of us have at home. The same can be said of containers for medicine and a variety of other products.
The point is, the vast majority of the containers are filled typically 30 to 50%, misleading the consumer but also wasting materials and contributing to waste.
See (VPN needed)(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSkls4E2CVM):

Packaging, too often a huge waste

In the beginning of the clip, I show another source of waste: excessive packaging – also mentioned in my book.
The problem is now further made worse with another trend: online purchases delivered at home. In China we see an enormous amount of waste due to packing done by the delivery service: carton, tape, bubble paper and other.

See the figures in China. Astonishing.

E-waste recycling in China

China is one of the largest producers and recipients of e-waste in the world. According to a recycling industry report released by the Ministry of Commerce in May 2016, e-waste items recycled in China in 2015 alone amounted to 152.74 million pieces.

The cover of my book Toxic Capitalism shows the arrival yard of one of the few e-waste recycling factories around Beijing. As I describe in my book, the recycling industry in China might be big but is also contributing to more damage to the environment.
Another related issue is ‘toxic waste” such as batteries, ink cartridges and alike. In Beijing I did not find a way to properly dispose of it, as mentioned in my book.

Seminar on e-waste recycling

See the full story here (August 2016):
http://www.apacinsider.com/2016-china-s-e-waste-recycling-app-goes-global

Participants from over 13 countries have come together to learn from China’s experience in managing the mounting e-waste recycling challenge, and be inspired by China’s e-waste management systems, practices, disposal and treatment technologies and how these can be applied and replicated throughout the world.
To discuss this challenge, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together with the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, developed a three-day workshop to share experience and knowledge with government representatives, private sector companies and academia. Participants will visit a dismantling factory in Tianjin, alongside learning about the Innovative Baidu Recycle App, launched by UNDP China and internet giant Baidu.

The pioneering Baidu Recycle App, uses an innovative model of connecting consumers, dismantlers and manufactures together using an efficient and user friendly smartphone app. The user can find out a price and recycle their electronic products using a nearby legitimate e-waste pick-up services, helping to simplify the recycling process and cut down on informal recycling stations.

OK to be honest I still don’t know much about this app – and it probably in Chinese only…