Panda bins for recycling fitted with sensors
Print Edition
THE panda bins in the city are going high-tech.
The bins, which are used to collect used clothes and found in communities and schools across the city, will now be fitted with sensors to tip off the collection agents when they are almost full.
The sensors will be placed on the “panda” ears. When the bins are almost 70 or 80 percent full, it will send signals to the monitoring platform of the collection company, which will then send workers to collect the old clothes.
“Without the sensors, the workers had to check the bins one by one all over the city and from time to time. It often led to complaints that the workers were not emptying the bins or were too slow in collecting them,” said Zhang Yiming, manager of Shanghai Lvsheng Textile, one of the three authorized companies tasked to collect, classify and reuse the used clothes in the city.
The company, which has the panda-shaped bins placed at over 1,000 residential complexes, plans to add another 4,000 bins this year and cover nearly 6,000 communities. Each bin has a capacity of 60 to 80 kilograms. About 400 to 500 households share one bin.
The company will put up 800 more panda bins on Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall and Huaihai Park tomorrow.
An average of 120 to 150 kilograms of clothes are collected in each bin every month, Zhang told Shanghai Daily.
He admitted that some of the used clothes are stolen that dampened some of the enthusiasm of donors.
The bins have been upgraded several times with sturdy materials and locks, but it has failed to stop the theft. Some of the bins are placed near the security office but even then garbage scavengers manage to empty at night, he said.
Some of the stuff ends up in the second-hand markets or sold to factories elsewhere.
Recently, a man driving a van and stealing clothes in Daning area was caught. He allegedly had stolen from 10 residential communities.
Chen Lanying, a resident who lives on Miyun Road in Hongkou District, said, “I once saw a cleaner trying out clothes from the bin. She walked away with several relatively new and good quality clothes, which made me angry. I don’t want thieves to profit from our donated stuff.”
Chen said she had donated several cotton-padded jackets and trousers.
The panda bins were introduced in 2012 as part of an environmental protection campaign in the city. Clothes in good condition are donated to schools in poor areas, while the rest are processed into textiles, industrial and construction raw materials. They are turned into jeans, gloves, vegetable protection nets and sound insulation materials.
Zhang said about 8 to 10 percent of the collected clothes are donated, while the rest of them are recycled.
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