Largest plastic recycling plant opens in Beijing

CHINA WATCH The world’s biggest plastics-recycling plant, capable of recycling 60,000 tons of waste annually, has begun operating in Beijing.

This plant is operated by Beijing Incom Resources Recovery Co and costs 300 million yuan ($37.5 million), Li Ping, director of the Beijing municipal industry promotion bureau, said yesterday.

In many parks or public places of Beijing, Greenbang frequnetly sees poor and old people scrabbling in the garbage looking for plastic bottles. Sometimes they follow you and stare – just want to get the bottle in your hand when you are taking a drink.

You don’t see this in the West, but this is their business – well, a living anyway. They are the main collectors of the plastic bottles in this city, but there must be some health concerns that go with the job.

Either way, it’s not much of a way to spend your old age. One of the bottle collectors allowed Greenbang to take a photo.

And here is some info from Chinadaily about the new plant:

“He (Li Ping) said the plant’s annual capacity equaled one-third of the city’s total waste in plastics, and would result in 30,000 tons of clean polyester and 20,000 tons of polyester chips – equivalent to a saving of 300,000 tons of petroleum annually.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers are usually employed to collect discarded plastic products. The products are taken to urban-fringe zones where they are cleaned and crushed.

Beijing has more than 150 low-level workshops, each with a daily capacity of 1-3 tons. About 15 to 20 tons of water is needed to process one ton of waste plastics.”