Recycling hut gives new life to garbage

The average daily recycling capacity of Sheshan Town’s first residential recycling hut reached more than 1,900 kilograms.

As early as 9:30am, a long line of people began queuing around the hut near the south gate of the Jiangqiuxinyuan residential area.

Among them were senior residents coming on foot or by small motorcycle, as well as youngsters in cars to sell waste.

Paper and cardboard, plastics, wooden items and electrical appliances all had value — paper is sent to make pulp at paper mills, plastic is crushed to make color-matched batches and waste wood products are turned into bio-fuel.

The recycling hut makes it possible to turn waste into useful resources once again.

Some residents said they were amazed that their waste could be turned into useful products while keeping the residential area free from garbage.

The convenience of the recycling hut almost makes selling waste a trend at the residential complex.

“If I throw away the waste, I gain nothing. But if I sell it at the hut, I gain a little cash. Besides, the hut is only minutes away from my home,” said Feng Yulong, a resident of the community.

“I used to think saving and selling waste is disgrace. But now people all bring useless goods to the recycling hut and sell them here. The environment turns nicer. It’s a fashion to recycle waste,” said a young man while discharging a pile of cardboard from the trunk of his car.

“There’s no need for us to wait futilely for a sing-a-ling tricycle anymore,” said Zhou Renmei, a resident who came to sell scrap iron, referring to the vehicles usually driven by a self-employed waste collector ringing its bell along lanes and streets in urban areas.

Often a sing-a-ling tricycle would arrive much later than expected, leaving a large amount of waste piling up in the corridors of residential buildings, posing both environmental and safety hazards. The recycling hut solved the problem, and the price is publicly announced.

“We needn’t bargain with a sing-a-ling tricycle owner anymore,” said another.

This year, the Sheshan Town will build five more recycling huts, 10 recycling stations and five recycling networks, so that the whole town will be served by recycling facilities and citizens can sell waste more conveniently.