Video
        

China Lite

Wen'an: plastics reach the end

Updated: 2011-08-15 08:56

By Sun Peng (chinadaily.com.cn)

Twitter Facebook Myspace Yahoo! Linkedin Mixx

Get Flash Player

If you live in Beijing, Tianjin or any other city in North China, after putting an empty water bottle in a waste bin marked "recycle", it is usually independently collected and sold to a waste collection business. The bottle's final resting place? Wen'an county, Hebei province. About 120km south of Beijing, Wen'an is the largest cluster of family-run plastics recycling businesses in North China.

Traveling through the county, it is impossible to miss the large advertising boards that line roads. Nearly all say in big, bold letters things like PE, PS, PVC and PP, which describe to those "in the know" the kinds of plastics different companies handle. In Wen'an county, the industry has evolved into a mature chain: from sorting and cleansing, to melting, shredding, granulating and molding.

Residents in Wen'an told China Daily that the pollution created by this "sustainable" industry is seriously affecting their health and has even made them afraid to drink the water, which many believe is severely contaminated. To control the pollution, Wen'an government stopped all the plastic recycling business this summer. But now, without a long-term plan, new problems are arising.

Video: Sun Peng

Voiceover: Chris Clark

Producer: Flora Yue

Some photos are provided by Gao Shiyang.

Related story: Garbage in, pollution out

Wen'an: plastics reach the end

E-paper

Going with the flow

White-collar workers find a traditional exercise helps them with the frustrations of city life

The light touch
 Long way to go 
Outdoor success

European Edition

Specials

Star journalist remembered

Friends, colleagues attended a memorial service to pay tribute to veteran reporter Li Xing in US.

Robots seen as employer-friendly

Robots are not new to industrial manufacturing. They have been in use since the 1960s.

A prosperous future

Wedding website hopes to lure chinese couples

Sowing the seeds of doubt
Lifting the veil
Exclusive attraction