A large city like Beijing, with the population more than 22 million, produces 1.84 tons
household garbage. Very few people know where recyclable scrap goes and how will the city
handle those. There are more than a hundred recyclable scrap markets in suburban areas of
Beijing, also the destinations of much of Beijing’s recyclable scrap. The yards of the
markets are filled with blocks of crushed metal, stacks of cardboard, heaps of plastic
bottles and piles of newspapers and rags. People there work on sorting and preparing it
for a second life. When the dark falls in the city, tricycles and trucks throng to the
village, loaded with discarded cardboard, paper and plastic bottles.
