Dressing up the garbage

Old clothes now have a future in Shanghai, no longer destined solely for the back of the wardrobe or the garbage bin. Clothing recycling bins are being set up throughout the city and by 2014 there will be an estimated 12,000 bins where people can place their once favored but now tattered or out-of-fashion dresses, shirts and trousers.

"The first clothing collection bins are being placed in 1,000 neighborhoods in Shanghai on trial. We will have all managed neighborhoods fitted with those bins by 2014," the chairman of the recycling company Shanghai Yuan Yuan Industry, Yang Yinghong, told the Global Times.

In August last year his company was authorized by government to collect and sterilize old clothes. Yang said his company was the first and only company approved to collect clothing in Shanghai or anywhere in China.

"China has imposed strict controls over buying and selling second-hand clothing because of concerns that badly processed textiles could transmit diseases. Importing second-hand clothing from overseas is banned," Yang said.

As the quality of life improves, the amount of used clothes has grown to a level where it has to be handled properly rather than just having these clothes being treated as garbage or traded in illegal market stalls.

"There are vendors selling second-hand clothes after midnight in the Qipu Road market. I have also seen peddlers near Shuicheng Road and near the Hongkou district government office late at night," Li Junlong, the manager of Shanghai Yuan Yuan Industry, said.

Hard to clean

"These traders seldom clean the clothes and even if buyers wash the clothes it is often difficult to effectively get rid of bacteria and parasites which can spread disease," Li said.

Yang said that the existence of the black market proved there were people who needed cheap recycled clothing but their needs should be catered for properly.

"These bins are being placed in neighborhoods so that residents don't have to wait until there is a special event to get rid of clothes. They can throw their clothes out whenever they want. The clothes are then sorted and sterilized before they are sent to charities and poor families, ensuring they are in good condition and are safe to wear," Yang said.

The company has already placed collection bins in more than 600 neighborhoods, and the amount of used clothing it is processing is growing steadily.

"Every three to five days we collect the clothes from the bins. In last October we collected 6 tons of clothes and last month we picked up 9 tons," Yang said.

But this is a fraction of the clothing thrown away in Shanghai every day.

Recycling involvement

Yang said Shanghai produced about 20,000 tons of domestic garbage every day, an amount that would fill the 88-floor Jinmao Tower. "About 4 percent of this domestic garbage is clothing, footwear and recyclable bed linen," he said. He is confident that soon all Shanghai residents will become involved in recycling.

"The project has just started and we are distributing more and more bins each month. We put bins in another 160 neighborhoods last month. And we will reach our goal of 12,000 bins in Shanghai by 2014," he said.

"Though we only have one processing line and can only deal with 3 tons of clothing each day soon we will move to a new plant in Pudong New Area where there will be 10 processing lines which will really increase our productivity," he said.

At present 20 percent of the clothes and material the company receives is sent to local charities, 50 percent is sold to underdeveloped countries and the rest is shredded and recycled in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces to become cotton gloves, road underlay and cushion stuffing.

Shanghai sees clothes recycling as a key to encouraging residents to sort their recyclable garbage.

According to the official website of the Shanghai Landscaping and City Appearance Administration Bureau, Shanghai started domestic garbage sorting in the 1990s. However it has not taken off satisfactorily - only 50 percent or so of the households in old neighborhoods sort their garbage.

Generosity

"Unlike kitchen waste or other domestic garbage, it is much easier to sort clothing. We have seen a lot of generosity in the way Shanghai residents give their clothes to us," Yang said.

"One old couple in Yangpu district called us to their home and gave us 20 bags of old clothing - about 300 kilograms of material. They did not sell the clothes to vendors because they wanted their clothing to help people in need," he said.

"There are also many people who do not have bins near their homes but send their old clothes to neighborhoods with bins," he said.

Yang said many Shanghai people used to give unwanted clothes to poor families, but as living standards improved, some householders feel awkward about this now.

"Some people are also reluctant to sell clothes to vendors because these vendors pay little and are very choosy about the condition of the clothes. These households prefer to donate their clothes rather than selling them to the black market," he said.

Company manager Li, who is from Taiwan, said, "Taiwan started garbage sorting 30 years ago but it took eight years for people to develop the sorting habit. I think, for Shanghai, clothes recycling is a very important step for people to get used to sorting their garbage."

 

Tips to help recycling

1. Take your clothes to your local clothes collection bin. You can find out the nearest site through the company's website.

2. Winter clothes in good condition are preferred and will be donated to people in need.

3. Make sure the clothes are clean and dry before you put them in the bin. Stained clothing has to be shredded to become industrial material.

4. The company also has a door-to-door collection service. Call 3987-2782.