China Desperately Grapples With Its Plastic Waste Crisis

[Music] we've traveled about an hour outside Beijing where the problems China faces managing its wastes are on stark display this stockpile here is the result of share bike schemes gone wrong the bicycles were dumped here because they were clogging up Beijing streets this is just one of many bicycle dumping grounds dotted across China they're a symbol of a culture that produces and throws away on a massive scale and whether it's bicycles plastics or industrial wastes it's a problem that's getting bigger and bigger and bigger [Music] China's government has now declared its own war on waste the question is is it winning no way illustrate better the scale of the problems China faces and its war on waste an external Beijing population almost the same as Australia each day the city produces twenty five thousand tons of waste more than double what it turned out twenty years ago [Music] this army of food careers is unwittingly at the front line of the problem don't achieve it only rather solid food delivery is known here as why my in China's big cities you can order pretty much anything from a multi-course banquet to a single cup of coffee for next to nothing um be a pendulum nine sessions of attention Hodges of Asia shopping for a new chairman her she's young Latino and material Osama duder food Korea route yen dreamed following his father and grandfather into the army but a disability made that impossible now the 22 year old is serving his countrymen in a different way every day he races against the clock his job and income depend on getting good reviews [Music] anyhow am i right now time you saw [Music] thank you sir grouchy so moody and bang so they backed out slugging bang - so early under German bow with a bunch of younger Joker juice recipes on my idea these newly popular online delivery services are helping to generate vast amounts of plastic waste across the country about 20 million orders are made each day mainly from two major companies producing around 60 million plastic containers Shahnameh constants avian function what you are some dos uno dos uno dos under the dough you're there [Music] hey sis yeah hey amantha well this isn't bad as a freshly roasted hot coffee delivered right to the office store you've got your milk you've got the stirrer you've got the bag to prevent spillage but all this packaging for just one drink you can see what China's government is worried [Music] multiplied by 60 million pieces every day across the country and it's no wonder the rubbish is piling up [Music] nice to meet you it is traveling around basically promoting rubbish sorting right Chen Li wen knows all too well the challenges faced by a country where more people are getting wealthy fast here's some religious they don't have the basic infrastructure for wisdom enjoyment she's one of China's most energetic environmental campaigners today Chen Li wen is taking us to see where a good part of Beijing rubbish ends up on the city's outskirts historically China sidious also sends their waste to the countryside but gradually the farmers refused because we have more and more not organic stuff we've come to one of Beijing's biggest and oldest dump sites home to both a landfill and an incinerator and this is about as close as we can get this is it the first time I came here was almost 10 years ago it's now so big it's going like a beauty in the past this landfill contaminated the groundwater as far as four kilometers away locals also worry about emissions from the incinerator over the years I have visited over 30 facilities including landfills and incinerators across China I could see how this facility is heavy impact the people but and people are suffering from the pollution without sustainable waste management we don't have future [Music] in its war to reduce waste China has one major advantage a vast network of rubbish pickers who keep much of the recyclable waste out of landfill and incineration hey hey yeah yeah hey man says watch Aniyah Wang Jin dong is one of Beijing's 170,000 rubbish scavengers part of the informal recycling industry that currently handles about a third of the city's garbage a library worker who left his home province ten years ago one lives on the fringes of the capital in a brick Shack with no electricity or running water Wang and his wife took in their nephew 11 year old Hmong man after the child's father became ill nice night for mate will you go ugh ah ha Eliza made Matt and I have person you know what I ever said I met my number oh oh by the way Obama Maya how many we were born also don't one is committed to giving his nephew and education [Music] [Music] today Wang is taking me with him to collect bottles on a demolition site covered with plastic mesh to keep down the dust it's slow work you can tell - yeah yeah you got tell you it's about less than one cent Australian you do that I do each general I could join Doherty and you can watch it young man rgeous requite here oh cool so wolfy nah it's about five or five or six dollars a day roughly Australian that you can make collecting rubbish here the real money in rubbish comes from controlling turf well-connected collectors cut deals with the big residential compounds paying for exclusive rights to handle their waste the way you manage introduce ourselves [Music] well it's not the easiest way to make a living at the best of times but it's not even 10:00 a.m. that's already getting up towards 35 degrees yes a limit to the position you know what should our waters that we do la la la journée sure what is really before 2 dB ah well hazel hazel what tuna well hey the reverse she was on you what super narrow did not wanna what would you put your reason the rubbish pickers are highly effective according to Chen Li wen whose study them closely we can recycle whatever the market can deal with we we do the field work and found that they recycled like almost 90% of the recyclables any is much much higher than any developed countries they rely on recycling to his family magnin attends a local school set up for the children of the city's migrant workers it costs his uncle around two hundred dollars a year in fees but even in this marginalized community the rubbish pickers nephew is at the bottom of the pack that's wrong I'm not sure [Music] the rubbish collectors might be efficient but their future is uncertain most like Wang Jin dong come from outside the city in recent crackdowns Beijing has tried to force them out recently Wang has heard that the buildings around his home are slated for demolition and he fears his could be next that's a much one journey since all founded even kokujin oil cooler which anything fun Demetria a Mashona will you toggle Hanukkah an autumnal but you never [Music] the rubbish pickers are facing another threat it comes from entrepreneurs like Yoshi a song was at the forefront of a government push to solve the waste crisis with high-tech solutions don't call me or and Waddy Wachtel thinking that gosu hundred offends a moment ago we showed weeping booty - and I want the venetie yo sambuca call me or to me that's my Yummie I mean each other shoots so it's usually Jo you go you go you go Moo sound back if you see how much of the highest order you're doing yet the O's company aims to cut out the rubbish collectors by encouraging individuals to recycle each bottle credits just under one cent to your bank account her company has placed 5000 of these machines around Beijing there's a daily limit of 20 to 30 bottles per user designed to stop the rubbish Pickers from cashing in the company then transports the bottles to a plastic processing factory and ultimately turns them into consumer goods you know that you share with us today also the power to pass or to attain what is traditions and replenishes you can make or the physician this has become to be how about chow down de you know Pete haha the community Joanna she and other internal [Music] Hwang Jin dong is still recycling the old-fashioned way he peddles his wares to a market more than an hour across town another small cog in the informal recycling chain boom baguette healthy we done it kulfi mean I don't know what I'm a designer tired alloys change until Milwaukee from our cinemas this so we sandwich sandwich just eaten touch and tell you here the city's trash turns into treasure any item useful for manufacturing plastic cardboard metal has a value here it's been a good day mr. Wong's made about thirty dollars from a week's garbage enough to support his family for another week from here the plastic bottles cardboard and other packaging and collected on the streets of Beijing begin the long journey away from the capital the question is where does it all go from here when the government announced its ban on foreign waste last year it also tracked down on backyard recycling centers like this important young Motty pH miserable seeking so they finally got that shiz it's you see this you see that you turn a piece of the suit up could as this recent state media documentary reveals authorities are making a show of closing down these centers because they're a danger to workers health and the environment Geodude reduction second tampon in them can be handled african co tu-tu-tu-tu-tu teacher she defies it so you see it's windy me please at yoga but of all these backyard operators really shut down and if they have where is China's domestic waste being recycled we decide to visit what once was the biggest Center for plastic recycling in northern China the when and district and our from Beijing [Music] while processing was officially shut down here some years ago I've heard there's still some going on TV some sort of plastic product there and there are indications recycling is happening nearby here's another truck with plastic pellets we've gone through the recycling process already and they're ready to be taken away and used for manufacturing but if it is still happening it's well hidden diva so no girl no [ __ ] face soon as I hung them are mama yeah I or Emma I call one of the numbers on the shop fronts and the man tells me he's moved his business to Inner Mongolia in China's far north when the center was closed people would shift it to a more remote area to continue their disease because we still have somewhat flat plastic we didn't solve the problem it's just this shift to the pollution from one like very concentrated Center to a more like dispersed religious in went on there are cameras everywhere [Music] about half an hour after our rival local officials turn up whatever is going on here they don't want us to see it cops to find us so they're wanting us to come down and have a word with them before supposedly they'll show us one of these local factories here we'll see after an hour at the station the police take us to lunch then send us on our way they say plastic processing has all been shut down and went on and moved to other parts of China [Music] back in Beijing there are some aspects to the rubbish system the government is keen to showcase city officials have organized a media tour to show us how they're dealing with Beijing twice baking is one of 46 cities across the country trialing a new rubbish sorting system government efforts so far to convince city dwellers to sort their waste haven't gone well I'm Casey bein to yourselves you quota sure to go to way the table I see we shall all see you should hire Lottie for the night whole bunch of lazy finito may your light even it only on your daughter for karate dirty your feet on poor innocence out yeah shootin well I do you push your home to us in their merely adamant Eric Leo is the lead plastics campaigner for Greenpeace he thinks the government needs to do more than educate people about rubbish sorting it needs to make it compulsory y'all shall meet Lee Hall to me and Sandra know differently to sure you go once you've got your negative once collected Beijing's rubbish is compacted then trucked on to one of the world's largest incinerators and that's the next stop on our tour [Music] the lewd Yosh an incinerator in the hills west of Beijing burns about an eighth of the city's garbage transforming the heat into energy according to Jung you a Zhang from the city government each year this plant produces the same amount of electricity as 140,000 tons of coal no more children 20 functional should you know should you build a natural woman yeah sure it's handy Omonia scenario could be a goner yeah yeah almond agenda to go to the children China wants its big cities to burn more than half their household waste by the end of this decade but if the rubbish isn't properly sorted there are problems Toki facilities so you teach here for 13 in order to go that's it for John Waters you're a child would have gone to your Peter data concentration basically you say ro you tell your daughter how water well yeah there's a corner family now so if you're not happy open in the Utah United Water samu chunka you guys young bees out there she'd had a lot youthful materia and then imagine Chiquita you're human but from what we see here today there's still a lot of plastics in the mix it's clear China has a long way to go [Music] but food Korea route yen it's been another long day on the streets of Beijing he's returning to the flat he shares with eleven other food couriers all from other parts of China jo hye jin the 2010 some clam and it's so join us online the central government is now considering restrictions on packaging including takeaway food containers Raj en hasn't heard about these plans but he agrees there needs to be change events Angela SEO search engine optimization SEO juice whooshes angiotensin Eva so so jacala Gallo haha' Terrence Masson Yokosuka my user hi - hi Emma [Music] I've come back to see the rubbish pick up one Jin dong and his nephew six weeks earlier he told us he was worried the local government would try to force him out of his home well this is a bit of a surprise since we were here last time that completely ripped up this Lane where their houses don't even know if they're home anymore the channel was in the yellow tag and taken and all the world and your world what Tina Cunha Wang Jin dong doesn't know how much longer their house will remain standing but he says whatever happens about try to stay in Beijing so much Alan Wong was not shy lineal jnanam Parata billion still funny on Oprah no Maharajah watch eliyahu with his rubbish cart Brickton Wang is trying to support his family by picking up casual labor jobs it's not the future he dreams of through his nephew so another way you can watch a yellow and shiny car you were covering Hollywood Issue another 100 shows the youth of the year some fun [Music] what among hallelujah you the user no fans and then although to jolly yet tell you what I didn't want to [Music] China wants to make a cleaner future for eleven-year-old Hmong man but if the rubbish pickers disappear he could be growing up in a country that recycles less than it does now as the big cities modernize the lives of those who have done the most to keep them clean will be more precarious than ever [Music] you

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 1,009,014

Rating: 4.8127275 out of 5

Keywords: Journeyman, Journeyman Pictures, china, waste, plastic waste, recycling, environment, pollution, plastic, food delivery, informal recycling, rubbish, beijing, recycling technology, recycling plastic, recycling projects, recycling plant, recycling ideas, recycling plastic bottles, environmental issues, pollution documentary, food delivery app, recycling technology innovation, new recycling technology, pollution in china, plastic waste disposal, plastic waste management

Id: dxsJVaL5vLc

Length: 28min 50sec (1730 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 17 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

funny there was another vid with US and other western countries having trouble because China stopped taking other countries' trash

[u/MaxPaynesRxDrugPlan]

I lived in China for a bit around 2010, I remember that as soon as I was about to finish any bottled drink in public, there was often a scrap collector/recycler ready to take it from my hand before I reached a garbage can. I could tell then that the recycling rate there must have been very high, as this video confirms.

[u/StockFly]

Just watched it all, pretty great video overall. You dont really hear much about China's recycling, except of their plans of renewable energy for the future. Its pretty cool how part of the video they followed a recycle picker and his nephew.

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Two things that stuck out was that China is actually recycling somewhat okay...and two that their government literally built a brick wall across the recycle pickers house to try and kick them out lmoa.