In China, recycling is taught in schools, but many students feel discouraged and do not actively incorporate recycling into their daily routines. I interviewed Cindy from a youth run organization called AIESEC. Actually, I am a member of both AIESEC New York City in my home university as well as AIESEC SWUFE in my study abroad university.
Cindy is in charge of the Green Power Now project that is offered for students all over the world to volunteer in. The purpose of this project is simple – to educate young Chinese students about proper waste management, especially recycling. This semester, a Ph.D. student from the Netherlands as well as two undergraduate students from Malaysia participated in the project. Cindy provided me with a unique perspective into recycling in China.
In a large country like China, with many densely populated cities, proper waste management is becoming an increasingly important issue. Cindy explains that even though many primary schools teach students about recycling, it is difficult “to change slogans into action.” On campuses as well as parks and streets all over China, there are waste bins that are marked “Recyclable” or “Non-Recyclable,” but as I’ve noticed, people do not take the extra second to toss out their waste in the correct bin.
“The government advocates the concept of recycling,” according to Cindy, but even if waste is properly sorted, the trash collectors “dump waste from different bins together, so all the sorting efforts are in vain.” I’m certain that if a young student who is learning about recycling in school for the first time sees a trash collector doing this, he or she would be discouraged from continuing to recycle.
