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Filmmaker Wang ponders over the recycling problems
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Q: After completing your documentary “Garbage Siege,” why do you make another similar one, “The Plastic Kingdom?”
A: “Garbage Siege” provided me a chance for overseas communication. During my visit in the US, I found that much of the household garbage was sent to China. I was puzzled and tried to figure it out myself
since May 2011.
I was shocked to witness the dumps of garbage with so many different languages lying there at the recycling factories.
Q: How many places have you investigated? Did you name them in your documentary?
A: I traveled in China’s northeast, north, east, south and some inland regions. There are imported plastic waste-recycling workshops in all those regions. I did not name a particular one in the documentary, as I consider it an issue of the country and even the world rather than any individual factory.
Q: Were there obstacles in the investigation and shooting?
A: It was very difficult to do the work without support from the government. I was even sometimes obstructed and seized by the regional government.
But what shocked me most was that some villagers — the victims in the case — also participated in the obstruction of my work, as they believed that they were defending their benefit. The ignorance and blindness terrified me deeply.
I should have set a good relationship with the villagers since I spent such a long time with them, but I couldn’t. I do not like any of them, in fact. It is suffering to be with them.
Q: The government of Wen’an County in Hebei Province banned waste plastic recycling in 2011. Did you find some other regional governments taking movements to cope with the industry during your investigation?
A: The banning in Wen’an was very complete as I investigated. But a huge side effect is that the workshops were diffused. They grew quickly in nearby counties such as Xingtai and Xiongxian.
Though crediting themselves as recycling economic industry parks, most of the factories work in very outmoded ways. The key of recycling economy never lies in how huge your factory is, but how you work.
Q: How would you suggest solving the problem?
A: It is very complicated as too many interest groups are involved. You cannot get rid of the “Plastic China” title simply by banning some of the factories. Something may need to be done from the streamhead.
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