Remade In China

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Week1— Response

Week1

 

The article mentioned that garbage collection is a big problem in China, and now people only pay attention to recycling, classification, however lack of awareness to reduce the amount of production. The current situation of China requires the joint efforts of consumers, governments and various industries.

I hold the view that the government’s actions are often the most direct one as well as the fastest one, concerning to Chinese national conditions, cause once the government gives orders, it often has strong mobility. The article also gives another reminder that I agree with: the government should strengthen the

establishment of the laws and regulations of various industries, not just the recycling industry.

However, in order to truly achieve it, we still need to pay attention to the public. Shanghai’s waste sorting has already achieved better requirements for popularization, but as far as I know about the waste treatment industry, waste sorting is only a small part of solid waste disposal, while the heat treatment, chemical treatment, and biological treatment are the real links and final effective treatments. Since the final requirements of waste are reduced, harmless and resource-resourced, only the public’s consciousness can be drunk and really reduced.

In conclusion, I generally agree with what the author thought about this issue, but the thoughts are not so much suitable for our country.

Week 1 Response from Joyce

The thing is, I thought I had known pretty much about the environment after taking EAP about (un)sustainability, but never had I deeply focused on recycled materials and their pollution before. Though I have already known that the ocean is seriously polluted by the plastic and I often see flying plastic bags on the street, the movie on the class still shocked me. The documentary explains how the plastic is destroying the ecosystem by polluting the marine and land in a clear logic, however, what shocked me more is how dangerous it is of the daily use of plastic. To be honest I am not a “sustainable” person — I still use plastic bags, sometimes the single-use tableware, and I order a lot of delivery food. Before I was only concerned about how those plastic waste will harm the environment but never about my body. Certainly, no one wants to be a person having those diseases that they even don’t know by name. I will reduce the time of using the plastic thing in the future. Meanwhile, another question jumped out in my mind, the plastic pollution in America has already been so serious, what about China — the “landfill” of those developed countries? The inequality does exist. Are we suffering from even serious pollution? I often smell pungent smells from the plastic products I buy, will it increase my risk of having cancer in the future since I use them nearly every day? I am familiar with the policy of having a price on the plastic bags, and as a Chinese, I also totally agree with the prohibition of importing plastic. I am not who survive on exporting plastic. As mentioned in the article, the problem appeared now. China has no more capacity for those plastics, neither India, Vietnam, while developed countries cannot recycle them either. There seem to be conflictions between different countries. But the plastic pollution is a global issue, and all the human beings who have used plastic should be responsible. (Though I don’t know what we should really do either :p)