University recycling turns trash into treasure
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E-mail China Daily, November 27, 2012
"With no other channels for the students to deal with their waste, most of the used materials will end up in the trash can or with trash collectors and illegal workshops, which will generate significant pollution in soil and air during their processing," he said.
Compared with the qualified and licensed waste recycling companies, informal ones usually offer a higher price thanks to cheaper labor.
"We have to balance the operational cost of the processing, labor cost and transportation fees, all of which far exceeds the cost for unlicensed sectors," said Liu. "In addition, they can stay outside the dorm building all day long, which is far more convenient for students than what we do."
Mao Da, an expert in solid-waste management at Beijing Normal University, said that because most illegal waste recycling workshops do not have pollution treatment facilities, their operating cost is much lower than those of their legal counterparts.
"Most waste in China is recycled informally by individuals, which threatens the quality of soil, air and water when sorted and dealt with outdoors," he said. "The country has to deal with growing environmental damage and health woes if recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal workshops."
More than 170,000 people in Beijing earn a living collecting trash with their own industry chain of collection, processing and marketing, according to an industry insider who did not want to be identified.
Scarce profit
Despite the thousands of packs of paper recycled, Liu Quan's company, however, is barely making any profit.
As one of the first pilot projects in the capital to carry out waste recycling since 2007, the company is capable of sorting some 50,000 tons of waste every year. However, supply shortages remain a headache.
Most waste ends up with the informal sectors, which can offer a higher price, Liu said.
According to Liu, most recycling business today is like public welfare, thanks to the high cost of machinery maintenances, logistics, labor, transportation and site costs, against all the fierce competition from the illegal workshops.
Taking all that into consideration, the production and sales of regenerative products barely counts.
However, now that so many universities are joining the union and more students are willing to participate, together with the policy support from the government, Liu is confident about the project's future.
And hopefully, he said, this will become a lucrative business in the near future.
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