The Recyclers of China.

We have just returned from our annual 4 week China holiday. (For those of you who don't know, or have forgotten, one of our sons, his wife and their two children have been living and working in Shanghai for almost 3 years....so we visit every year)

Before our first visit to China, in 2009, I had a very stereotypical, and as I found, incorrect, view of China. In Australia we are lead to believe that it is a polluting country, with no regard for the environment.
This is so wrong.


For me, watching locals collecting waste for recycling puts Australian efforts to shame.

This recycler is busy sorting his materials, before packing them onto his bike.

Can you see the bell in this man's right hand. He rings it as he rides the streets.

                                      

The locals use bicycles to scour their area.
And each person seems to focus on one type of material.

The local recycling centre near our house in Shanghai. Note bundles of paper, a fan and other materials.

Some collect paper.
Some collect cardboard.

What a huge pile of cardboard. It is an added skill to be able to ride a bike with a load like this!

A recycler's cardboard, ready to be piled onto his bike.

Some collect plastic.
Others collect glass.
Some collect timber.

Then there are bike loads of old metallic objects like fans, or air conditioners.

And you also see cloth/material/clothing being collected.

These people are on the streets all day, every day.
Some of them ring bells as they ride the streets. That way the locals know who is coming, and can come onto the street with their  "rubbish" .




They ride, or push, or pull, their laden bikes through the busy traffic of Shanghai's streets, in with the smart cars, and among  the buses, and taxis, and the hundreds of thousand pedestrians.
Apparently they take their stash to collection stations where they are paid for the goods.

Can you see that there are 2 tray loads of timber being hauled along this street?

It keeps the streets clean, and it certainly cuts down on waste.


The collectors' enthusiasm for their rather lowly tasks never ceases to amaze me.

I shall finish with a few more photos of these essential recyclers.
Don't you agree that they are better at this than we are?

That's a small sample of the resourceful Chinese.