Neighborhood goes green with new refuse recycling
July 31, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LAST December, the Vanke Group Chairman Wang Shi was invited to participate as an observer in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. On his first day back in China, he gave a speech at a forum on the topic "What Shanghai should learn from Taipei in refuse recycling."
This January, every family in the Langrun Garden residential area received a letter from Vanke Group, their property management company "Would you like to become a volunteer in refuse recycling?" the letter inquired. The answer was one of overwhelming support. Eight-eight percent of the 1,019 families surveyed said "yes."
This year Vanke has spent 5 million yuan (US$735,000) in three neighborhood of Qibao setting up the first two stages of a new recycling program. One deals with refuse collection; the other relates to handling garbage at home.
In Langrun Garden, there were two recycling machines that had lain idle for some time and had almost been forgotten. The factory that manufactured the machines was shuttered three years ago. Recycling as an eco-friendly system had not yet caught on. But times are changing.
The property management staff still talks about the first time they threw a piece of watermelon rind into one of the reinstated machines. A second later, when they checked, there was nothing but small debris left. The rind had been "digested" by the machine. Everyone was amazed and delighted. The next target was chicken bones. The staff reckoned Langun might be the first place in Shanghai to grind up its chicken carcasses.
Changing the way garbage is handled involves changing community mindset. People need to see how small recycling tasks they perform help the city's environment and instill pride in a neighborhood effort to go green. Display boards in the residential area are now filled with no end of helpful tips, and special litter bins for recycling various kinds of garbage are being installed. Plastics go here. Newspapers there. Cans and bottles in this bin. Table scraps in that bin.
According to the management staff, fully 95 percent of families in Langun Garden are savvy about the recycling program and 81 percent are active participants. But nothing comes easy.
In the first month of the new program, the property management company sent staff out to collect refuse and change litter bins every day. In the second month, residents assumed those tasks themselves. Every time refuse is sorted and deposited in the correct bin, the family will get a mark next to its name on a publicly displayed table of participation. When one family accrues 20 good marks, they receive one free roll of garbage bags.
"At the beginning, there were problems and we didn't understand what was required," says Mrs Zhao, one resident of the neighborhood. "Many times I had to hesitate before realizing which bin I was supposed to use for which garbage."
But Zhao was undeterred. "Seeing the efforts of our property management company, I don't think my little troubles are troubles at all," she said.
This January, every family in the Langrun Garden residential area received a letter from Vanke Group, their property management company "Would you like to become a volunteer in refuse recycling?" the letter inquired. The answer was one of overwhelming support. Eight-eight percent of the 1,019 families surveyed said "yes."
This year Vanke has spent 5 million yuan (US$735,000) in three neighborhood of Qibao setting up the first two stages of a new recycling program. One deals with refuse collection; the other relates to handling garbage at home.
In Langrun Garden, there were two recycling machines that had lain idle for some time and had almost been forgotten. The factory that manufactured the machines was shuttered three years ago. Recycling as an eco-friendly system had not yet caught on. But times are changing.
The property management staff still talks about the first time they threw a piece of watermelon rind into one of the reinstated machines. A second later, when they checked, there was nothing but small debris left. The rind had been "digested" by the machine. Everyone was amazed and delighted. The next target was chicken bones. The staff reckoned Langun might be the first place in Shanghai to grind up its chicken carcasses.
Changing the way garbage is handled involves changing community mindset. People need to see how small recycling tasks they perform help the city's environment and instill pride in a neighborhood effort to go green. Display boards in the residential area are now filled with no end of helpful tips, and special litter bins for recycling various kinds of garbage are being installed. Plastics go here. Newspapers there. Cans and bottles in this bin. Table scraps in that bin.
According to the management staff, fully 95 percent of families in Langun Garden are savvy about the recycling program and 81 percent are active participants. But nothing comes easy.
In the first month of the new program, the property management company sent staff out to collect refuse and change litter bins every day. In the second month, residents assumed those tasks themselves. Every time refuse is sorted and deposited in the correct bin, the family will get a mark next to its name on a publicly displayed table of participation. When one family accrues 20 good marks, they receive one free roll of garbage bags.
"At the beginning, there were problems and we didn't understand what was required," says Mrs Zhao, one resident of the neighborhood. "Many times I had to hesitate before realizing which bin I was supposed to use for which garbage."
But Zhao was undeterred. "Seeing the efforts of our property management company, I don't think my little troubles are troubles at all," she said.
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