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One woman's low-carbon activism
July 13, 2010, Tuesday
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"HAPPY Cook" Gao Shuijuan is a one-woman model for low-carbon living. She recycles waste restaurant oil into soap, fights "white pollution" from plastic bags and sets an example for others. Xu Wenwen reports.
Forty-nine-year-old Gao Shuijuan adds caustic soda to hot water, stirs, then adds once-used cooking oil and flour. This she molds into soap bars and lets them dry for half a month.
The resulting basic soap has no chemical scent and it can be used for hand washing and laundry.
Gao, who is known as "Happy Cook," also runs a restaurant of that name and since 2007 she has turned more than 300 kilograms of waste oil from her kitchen into more than 20,000 soap bars, all distributed to friends and customers. She has passed the formula on to other restaurant owners.
In general, oil is supposed to be used once for frying and then discarded. Sometimes it's collected by unscrupulous scavengers who filter and sell it to food vendors and others.
Gao learned the soap formula from a chemistry teacher who is a fellow member of the Zhejiang Province Volunteer Association for a Green Environment. She leads a team that distributes information on protecting the environment.
Gao has gone beyond recycling soap.
For several years, on a personal mission, she has been shuttling among the city's supermarkets, bookstores, drugstores and grocery markets to investigate how many plastic bags they used or gave away.
Today Hangzhou's supermarkets charge 0.20 yuan (3 US cents) for each plastic bag. There's a ban on free plastic bags, and Gao's efforts are partly responsible.
She became interested in the environment back in 1998 when she worked as a saleswoman in a pharmacy and was surprised when an old man declined her offer of a free plastic bag, saying it polluted the Earth.
Though she had heard about "white pollution" on TV, she hadn't given it much thought. From then on she started to do something.
Her efforts came to a sad halt that year when she was stricken by spinal arthritis and was almost paralyzed for a time.
"I resolved that if I recovered I would find value in my life by helping society," she recalls.
She did get better and in 2000 she began to collect data on the severity of the "white pollution" problem.
As she had some time flexibility in her sales job, she used her spare time to visit stores and markets, find the manager and ask how many bags the store consumes.
Some people turned her away, scorned her efforts or accused her of being a commercial spy. Others greeted her graciously, with smiles, cups of tea and plenty of data.
"I couldn't have carried on without those smiles and welcomes," says Gao, "and I believe a person will get a return on his/her efforts sooner or later, as long as he or she is grateful to others and society."
For example, she found that one booth in a grocery consumed half a kilogram of plastic bags in a day; a big supermarket on Jiefang Road spent 400,000 yuan to buy plastic bags annually; another big supermarket said the cost of plastic bags represented 0.2 percent of its costs. And all bags were given free to customers.
These staggering figures made Gao realize she couldn't do it alone.
In 2003 she joined the Zhejiang Province Volunteer Association for a Green Environment and built a team to fight plastic pollution from shopping bags. The team posted information citywide in supermarkets and groceries.
By then she had quit her sales job to campaign for the environment full time.
She and her team had a big impact. They designed posters and slogans and contacted retailers and the government. In 2005 and 2006 their posters depicted the Earth, in tears, crying, "For our babies, please use less plastic bags," and they were common on checkout counters in supermarkets and convenience stores.
"I didn't know I was so capable until then," Gao says. "From my work, I realize that love and care can be carried on if they are shared with others. Our team is an example."
During her volunteer work, Gao also made suggestions to the government, which also took an interest in reducing plastic bag consumption.
In 2008 the government banned free plastic bags and encouraged citizens to carry reusable bags.
Plastic bag consumption has been reduced dramatically through the ban.
Gao has now turned her attention to raising awareness about low-carbon living. And in her Happy Cook restaurant, she spreads the word about energy consumption, recycles cooking oil and gives away soap.
"The only success in life is being of value to others,"says Gao.
Forty-nine-year-old Gao Shuijuan adds caustic soda to hot water, stirs, then adds once-used cooking oil and flour. This she molds into soap bars and lets them dry for half a month.
The resulting basic soap has no chemical scent and it can be used for hand washing and laundry.
Gao, who is known as "Happy Cook," also runs a restaurant of that name and since 2007 she has turned more than 300 kilograms of waste oil from her kitchen into more than 20,000 soap bars, all distributed to friends and customers. She has passed the formula on to other restaurant owners.
In general, oil is supposed to be used once for frying and then discarded. Sometimes it's collected by unscrupulous scavengers who filter and sell it to food vendors and others.
Gao learned the soap formula from a chemistry teacher who is a fellow member of the Zhejiang Province Volunteer Association for a Green Environment. She leads a team that distributes information on protecting the environment.
Gao has gone beyond recycling soap.
For several years, on a personal mission, she has been shuttling among the city's supermarkets, bookstores, drugstores and grocery markets to investigate how many plastic bags they used or gave away.
Today Hangzhou's supermarkets charge 0.20 yuan (3 US cents) for each plastic bag. There's a ban on free plastic bags, and Gao's efforts are partly responsible.
She became interested in the environment back in 1998 when she worked as a saleswoman in a pharmacy and was surprised when an old man declined her offer of a free plastic bag, saying it polluted the Earth.
Though she had heard about "white pollution" on TV, she hadn't given it much thought. From then on she started to do something.
Her efforts came to a sad halt that year when she was stricken by spinal arthritis and was almost paralyzed for a time.
"I resolved that if I recovered I would find value in my life by helping society," she recalls.
She did get better and in 2000 she began to collect data on the severity of the "white pollution" problem.
As she had some time flexibility in her sales job, she used her spare time to visit stores and markets, find the manager and ask how many bags the store consumes.
Some people turned her away, scorned her efforts or accused her of being a commercial spy. Others greeted her graciously, with smiles, cups of tea and plenty of data.
"I couldn't have carried on without those smiles and welcomes," says Gao, "and I believe a person will get a return on his/her efforts sooner or later, as long as he or she is grateful to others and society."
For example, she found that one booth in a grocery consumed half a kilogram of plastic bags in a day; a big supermarket on Jiefang Road spent 400,000 yuan to buy plastic bags annually; another big supermarket said the cost of plastic bags represented 0.2 percent of its costs. And all bags were given free to customers.
These staggering figures made Gao realize she couldn't do it alone.
In 2003 she joined the Zhejiang Province Volunteer Association for a Green Environment and built a team to fight plastic pollution from shopping bags. The team posted information citywide in supermarkets and groceries.
By then she had quit her sales job to campaign for the environment full time.
She and her team had a big impact. They designed posters and slogans and contacted retailers and the government. In 2005 and 2006 their posters depicted the Earth, in tears, crying, "For our babies, please use less plastic bags," and they were common on checkout counters in supermarkets and convenience stores.
"I didn't know I was so capable until then," Gao says. "From my work, I realize that love and care can be carried on if they are shared with others. Our team is an example."
During her volunteer work, Gao also made suggestions to the government, which also took an interest in reducing plastic bag consumption.
In 2008 the government banned free plastic bags and encouraged citizens to carry reusable bags.
Plastic bag consumption has been reduced dramatically through the ban.
Gao has now turned her attention to raising awareness about low-carbon living. And in her Happy Cook restaurant, she spreads the word about energy consumption, recycles cooking oil and gives away soap.
"The only success in life is being of value to others,"says Gao.
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