Page 93 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

6 FROM “WASTE VILLAGE” TO “URBAN CIRCULAR ECONOMIC SYSTEM”… 79

requirements on community-based recycling facilities, including the design
of cabins, logos and the appearance of the vehicles. It also addressed the
further processing of recyclable goods, including sorting, compressing,
cleaning and purification. A closed-loop urban recycling system was
designed to fit the image of a modern international metropolis.
The plan also tried to address social problems in the city, including
unemployment among disadvantaged groups. It assigned local unem-
ployed workers priority as operators of community recycling facilities. Only
if the company could not hire enough workers from among local residents
were they permitted to hire qualified migrant labourers instead. The plan
created a set of rules and standards for training, registration, social security,
and human affairs management. It even suggested building a national
qualification certificate system for workers in the sector.
The recycling companies inherited from the former state-owned recy-
cling stations carried out the plan. In 2008, 20 recycling companies of this
kind established more than 3000 community recycling facilities covering
over 70% of the local resident population. They also built 13 sorting
centres located in different districts. However, collection still relied on
migrant scavengers. Although they provided cabins and uniforms to con-
tracted workers, the formal recycling companies could hardly create a
monopoly over such activities, either for them or their contractual
employees. As a consequence, contracted recyclers still had to compete
with informal scavengers working door-to-door. On the other hand, for-
mally contracted recyclers preferred to sell their collected waste to the
market that could offer the highest price, rather than at a fixed price to the
recycling company they were contracted to. As a result, the sorting centres
of the formal recycling companies were unable to acquire much of an
advantage over their rivals in the waste villages.

Reverse Logistic System: Efforts for Technical Optimization
Besides adopting a social approach in building community-based recycling
models, the municipal government also tried to transform the recycling
sector through optimization of the whole logistic system. In 2006, the
Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, together with 10 other municipal
bureaus, announced a new version of the Pilot Plan for Promoting the
Recycling Industry. This version put the emphasis on logistics and pro-
cessing. The main aims were to reduce the number of street migrant
scavengers and replace the recycling markets in waste villages with 10 big