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What a load of rubbish - where does it go?
By Li Huacheng and Mo Mo |
September 28, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE single person produces 500 grams of household garbage every day on average. With about 19 million Shanghai citizens, that's a lot of garbage. However, where has it all gone? How is it dealt with? With such questions, our reporter follows the step of a common public sanitation worker, looking for the answers.
Never stop
August 19 was a hot day again. At 1pm, the sanitation worker Lu Renming had just finished his simple lunch. With his partner Xiang Chengchu, he went back on the truck and drove to the next neighborhood.
"We've already got used to having lunch on our way," says Lu, "Although we're given one hour for noon break, we have to hurry up all the time. Otherwise we'll not finish our daily work." By the way, their daily work is to visit about 120 places and transport about four truckloads of garbage.
Ten minutes later, Lu parked their truck in Tacheng Neighborhood and began to load garbage and clean up. With wind blowing, the smelly air made passengers hurry to hold their noses. But Lu didn't.
In Jiading, there are about 200 sanitation workers like Lu. They get up at 5am and start work at 7:30am, and everyday they transport over 500 tons of garbage.
All the garbage Lu has collected will be sent to Anting Household Disposal Center. There are over 40 workers fighting at the most smelly front line - the workshop where garbage is sorted by the workers manually.
Recyclable garbage like metal, glass and cloth will be picked out and put aside. Organic materials will become fertilizer after about 50 days' fermentation. For material that doesn't easily degrade, such as plastic bags, the professional recycling company will collect it.
Delicate work
With the rapid growth of population, the entire amount of household garbage of Jiading increases by 8 percent every year. This year about 543 tons of garbage is produced each day on average.
"It's our responsibility to deal with every ton of garbage well," says Ma Lei, an official from the Anting Household Garbage Disposal Center.
Sorting - Long-term Goal
"Among everyday garbage, 20 percent is organics, 25 percent is plastic bags, and the rest is inorganic. If our citizens could pack them separately when throwing them away, it would be a great help for our workers here," says Ma Lei. "However, few people do so."
Recently, the city is trying to promote a new garbage sorting system, which divides garbage into four kinds - recyclables, glass, harmful and others. These four kinds are given four bins with different colors and illustrations.
According to the successful experience of some developed countries, the citizens' efforts are a key element to the final success.
Never stop
August 19 was a hot day again. At 1pm, the sanitation worker Lu Renming had just finished his simple lunch. With his partner Xiang Chengchu, he went back on the truck and drove to the next neighborhood.
"We've already got used to having lunch on our way," says Lu, "Although we're given one hour for noon break, we have to hurry up all the time. Otherwise we'll not finish our daily work." By the way, their daily work is to visit about 120 places and transport about four truckloads of garbage.
Ten minutes later, Lu parked their truck in Tacheng Neighborhood and began to load garbage and clean up. With wind blowing, the smelly air made passengers hurry to hold their noses. But Lu didn't.
In Jiading, there are about 200 sanitation workers like Lu. They get up at 5am and start work at 7:30am, and everyday they transport over 500 tons of garbage.
All the garbage Lu has collected will be sent to Anting Household Disposal Center. There are over 40 workers fighting at the most smelly front line - the workshop where garbage is sorted by the workers manually.
Recyclable garbage like metal, glass and cloth will be picked out and put aside. Organic materials will become fertilizer after about 50 days' fermentation. For material that doesn't easily degrade, such as plastic bags, the professional recycling company will collect it.
Delicate work
With the rapid growth of population, the entire amount of household garbage of Jiading increases by 8 percent every year. This year about 543 tons of garbage is produced each day on average.
"It's our responsibility to deal with every ton of garbage well," says Ma Lei, an official from the Anting Household Garbage Disposal Center.
Sorting - Long-term Goal
"Among everyday garbage, 20 percent is organics, 25 percent is plastic bags, and the rest is inorganic. If our citizens could pack them separately when throwing them away, it would be a great help for our workers here," says Ma Lei. "However, few people do so."
Recently, the city is trying to promote a new garbage sorting system, which divides garbage into four kinds - recyclables, glass, harmful and others. These four kinds are given four bins with different colors and illustrations.
According to the successful experience of some developed countries, the citizens' efforts are a key element to the final success.
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