Week4 Journal by Kenneth

The response to Mr.Yan

From Mr.Yan’ talk, I learned many facts of Shanghai’s trash sorting which are beneath the daily work of trash collectors.

• The first thing that I learn and also I have already known before is that the residual trash is the largest category of trash in our daily life. 
• Even the computer and the wood table without metal legs can be recycled
• There are few toxic trash
• The daily routine of trash collectors: start from 5:30 a.m to clean the trash for morning truck at 7:00 a.m. End their work at 11 p.m
• The policy of trash sorting brings great convenience for trash collectors–trash is cleaner.
• There are still part of people who don’t follow the rules, and their unwillingness to follow rules and education from trash collectors will affect the work of trash collectors

The most impressive thing that I heard about is that the policy of trash sorting has not affected their income. In my preconception, the policy of trash sorting may lead to the regulation and systemization of the trash collection industry so that the private sector of trash collectors will be affected. But actually the thing is that the trash sorting makes the work of trash collectors easier and more effective.

Mr.Yan has been in this industry for over a decade. He shares that when he drives the collector car on the street he is extremely possible for being stopped by police. He wishes that there will be some official action helping them work better.

Art Installation 2

We shoot a video in the cafe and we want to use the form of short video shown in the cafe, where is the most chilling, relaxing place and the site people will produce trash. We want to use a humors way to educate the community of NYUSH how to correctly manage the waste they produce.

The video is about the correctness of trash sorting. Our team member Sophia acts as a people who knows how to sort the trash correctly. The first two shots are that Sophia stop the wrong trash management and teaches what is the correct trash categories. The third scene is the praise for the right trash management in a humorous style. 

Link: https://youtu.be/Hn0xO8FjnNI

or Google drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aCjze3GMP-ZZQAo8CVH07kSne-KHTiQt

Take away from reading

1. PICs provide a uniform system for the identification of different plastic polymer types, helping recycling companies separate different plastics for reprocessing, and in most countries, all plastic products are required to use them(correct my misunderstanding).
2. Plastic #1(PETs) and Plastic #2(HDPE) are commonly recycled.
3. The recycling rate is quite low as we all know and the reason for it is the difficulty of sorting and separating.
4. It is costly and difficult to separate them when they are mixed.
5. More mix in input, lower quality in the output.
6. Glass, aluminum, uncoated paper, and #1 #2 plastic are readily recycled.
7. Money is the only reason why they are not recycled.
8. The cost of recycling has surpassed the cost of making new recycling, with the rise in the price of oil, the cost of making new plastic will rise up and it will be fine in the future.
9. The energy of producing biodegradable plastic is high.