Trash Collector Guest Talk
In today’s class, we were visited by a trash collector that works in the Shanghai area. He told us about his job and the various kinds of waste that he deals with on a daily basis. He shared various interesting facts with us about trash collection in Shanghai. Here are some notes that I jotted down during his talk:
- Residual trash is most common
- It often contains dirty paper which needs to be sorted by hand
- Wet trash is a significantly smaller category and it consists mostly of food leftovers
- Toxic trash includes medical waste and is collected by his team after a company calls in trash collectors
- Residual trash contains: clear trash is recycled but if it is black or brown or dirty then it goes into residual
- Textile waste is counted as recyclable
- Textile waste is priced depending on how much fabric you get from each piece
- Friday and Saturday are good business days since on those days most trash is produced
- Recyclables are mainly collected from companies
- Rising prices reduce the amount of trash available
- Holidays are bad business days
He also shared various notes on his day-to-day schedule and shed light on the challenges he faces on the job:
- His workday typically starts at 5:30 am when trash from the day before is collected
- Wet trash trucks come at noon
- 6am-8pm are his general working hours and he does not go to bed until 10:30pm
- he says that after the policy was implemented in Shanghai there is less trash and the trash that is present is relatively cleaner
In terms of the recycling habits of local Shanghainese citizens in the compound in which he collects trash:
- There are still people who randomly throw trash and refuse to adopt trash recycling laws
- Shanghainese families tend not to listen to proper waste disposal, while foreigners and the elder population is particularly receptive to proper waste disposal
- He now receives less money than he did before for trash per kg
Class Time and Trash Awareness Video Project:
(to be added)
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