23 Years of Foreigners and Beijing Garbage: From Waste Collector to Garbage Sorting Instructor
Li Ming dropped out of school at the age of 15 and went to Beijing with his father to carry out personal waste recycling. He has been dealing with Beijing's domestic waste for more than 20 years and has witnessed changes in waste recycling.
Beijing News (reporter Huang Zhecheng) May 7 is the first day that Zhongshili community in Dongcheng District resumed garbage collection. Li Ming drove the garbage truck to the community to check the trash can station. He replaced the kitchen waste green bin in the barrel station with an empty barrel on the car. Since the barrel was covered with rain, Li Ming's sleeves and pants had been soaked after moving the trash to the car.
Li Ming is a garbage sorting instructor in the Zhonglili community, and is also responsible for the removal and recycling of food waste in the community. He dropped out of school when he was 15 years old and left his hometown of Fuyang, Anhui. Following his father, he came to Beijing to do personal waste recycling. He rode a tricycle every day to find recyclable garbage, and since then became a stranger resident in Beijing.
Li Ming is 38 years old this year. He has been dealing with Beijing's domestic garbage for more than 20 years. From waste collection to garbage sorting instructor, Li Ming has witnessed a change in the treatment of garbage in Beijing for more than 20 years in the “garbage career”. He recalled that the garbage used to be sorted and processed at a later stage, and the pressure on landfill and incineration is high. Now through garbage classification, the front end can sort and reduce the amount of waste and reuse the garbage.
His life has changed accordingly. Due to the growth of the official professional team, most of the waste pickers and waste collectors Li Ming knew before now choose to change jobs, and some people have become garbage sorters like him. Li Ming admitted that he prefers the stable life now, "less of the previous feeling of 'floating'".
15-year-old dropped out of school and left home to enter Beijing, riding a tricycle every day to collect waste
Beijing News: When did you start recycling waste in Beijing?
Li Ming: My father came to Beijing in the early 1990s and it was the earliest of our family to do this business.
In 1997, I was 15 years old. That year, my father and I took a train from our hometown of Fuyang, Anhui, to Beijing, and began to recycle waste together with my parents. At that time, my parents were in Beijing. I really didn't want to go to school, so I wanted to come to Beijing with my father.
The weather was fine on the day I left home. My sister went to school and no one was home. I brought nothing but clothes. My father bought two train tickets for the train at night, and the green car people crowded and lined up to the car. Seventeen to eight hours, we stood all the way to Beijing, nowhere to sleep, sleepy and can only lean on the wall to squint for a while, as a child has never been so tired. When I arrived in Beijing, I was very excited and felt that everything was fresh.
Beijing News: What was your daily life like at that time?
Li Ming: My parents and I live in a large yard in Shilihe. The house we live in is about 8 square meters. At that time, this line was basically a fellow with a fellow, all gathered together. We live in more than a dozen households in a hospital, all of them are Fuyang fellows who do waste recycling.
At that time, Shilihe was still farmland and there were few people. We all went to Fangzhuang, where there are many people, to collect waste products. Every morning at seven o'clock, I opened my eyes and went out to eat early. Then, I rode a tricycle to go around Fangzhuang's residential area and shouted "Collect waste, collect trash". In the evening, I went home and sold the goods I received at the scrap station. There is nothing to do at night. Sometimes everyone gathers in the yard to chat, and they basically rest after ten o'clock.
In the Spring Festival of 2004, I met my wife in my hometown. When I met on the first day of the year, I got married on the sixth day. When the first child was born in 2005, I took them to Beijing. Two of the five people lived in the compound together. Our husband and wife rented another one, and everyone did waste recycling together.
Beijing News: At that time in Beijing, what is your monthly income?
Li Ming: Around 2000, each of my parents earned six or seven hundred yuan a month, and I made about four hundred yuan a month. My parents used to be farmers, and there were many old family members. If I was farming at home, it would be nice to have enough food, let alone make money.
"Transform" from individual waste recyclers
Beijing News: What is the opportunity for you to join the community waste sorting team?
Li Ming: In 2006, I joined a waste recycling company where my father-in-law worked, and that year I was assigned to the Zhongli Community. At that time, the community hadn't started sorting garbage. We only wanted to recycle waste.
Zhongshili Community really started garbage sorting. Around 2018, our company continued to contract the waste sorting of streets and communities here. Later, I became a garbage sorting instructor in the community, and was responsible for the removal and removal of food waste Recyclables are recycled. When I first started as a garbage sorting instructor, some residents were still very surprised. They said that the master who collected the wastes managed the garbage sorting.
Beijing News: Have you been trained before becoming a garbage sorting instructor?
Li Ming: The company has trained us for more than 10 days, mainly talking about the process of door-to-door recycling, how to guide the classification of residents, and there are four specific classifications of garbage. Because I have been doing it for a long time, it is not difficult to accept.
Beijing News: From your experience, can individual scavengers and waste recycling personnel be completely replaced by official teams?
Li Ming: Now the community basically has a special team to collect and transport garbage. Most of my colleagues who know how to recycle their own waste have now changed jobs. Many of them who stay and continue to work are elderly people in their 50s and 60s who have no choice or change. Room.
Although there are fewer and fewer "retail households", I don't think it's possible for the government to take over all the work, which is too costly. These individual recycling personnel can become a supplement.
"Multiple jobs" garbage sorting instructor
Beijing News: What kind of waste sorting work are you mainly responsible for in the Zhongli Community?
Li Ming: I work from 7 am to 8 pm every day. In the morning, I mainly worked as a garbage sorting instructor and a clearing and transporting staff. I drove the clearing truck to patrol various garbage sorting bin stations, inspected the food waste bins and other garbage bins, disinfected them, and sorted out the wrong garbage . Replace full food waste bins, and uniformly receive the food waste at the temporary food waste storage near the community.
In the afternoon, I mainly went to the residents' homes where I made an appointment to collect the recyclables. The community has launched a special APP for residents, and residents can make an appointment online.
Beijing News: After the implementation of the new regulations on garbage classification in Beijing, what changes have occurred in the community?
Li Ming: At least half of the residents can now participate in the waste classification, and the amount of food waste separated has increased. I think it has increased by about a third. The number of community trash cans has also increased, and now there are sorting bin stations downstairs in each building.
During the epidemic, the door-to-door recovery was suspended. I just resumed it on May 7. I went to two or thirty homes that afternoon. After receiving the resident's appointment, we requested that we must come home within 20 minutes.
I think the current four categories are more convenient and easy to handle. Garbage classification is to reduce the amount of garbage, improve the environment, make the most of what can be used, mix it up and throw it in the past, and finally land or burn, and pollute the environment and waste resources. The big difficulty now is that some residents are not used to it. After all, garbage is thrown in a bag in the past, which is more labor-saving.
Beijing News: What will you do if you do n’t meet the regulations?
Li Ming: I will persuade them to pay attention, but it is also difficult. The new regulations have just been implemented, and they have to be euphemistic when persuaded, and they must not be tough. Sometimes we also help residents sort, pick out the mixed debris and throw it into the bucket.
These are matters of habit and concept, and it takes time to hurry.
"I am closer to Beijing, but I still want to go back home"
Beijing News: What's the difference between doing waste recycling and becoming a community classification instructor? which one do you like more?
Li Ming: Each has its own advantages. Be free yourself, time is not restricted, you can rest when you are tired. However, there are not many days of real rest, because you have little income and are unstable, and you are basically busy every day. You can earn a little bit.
Working in the community, although not as free as before, is harder than before, but commuting to work at a fixed time is more stable. I can earn five or six thousand yuan a month. This income is not low, and the company pays insurance. After working in this community for more than ten years, I got used to it. My wife, father and I rented a house near the community, less of the feeling of "drifting". I prefer this stable life now.
Beijing News: How is your life now? Is the child also in Beijing?
Li Ming: There are many children, and the pressure to live in Beijing is too great. Four years ago, my mother and I sent the three children back to Fuyang, and my mother stayed at home to take care of them. Now our couple and the children contact us at least once a day, using WeChat video or voice.
The eldest boy and the second son are in junior high school. I sent them to the closed school in the county. The boss did not perform well and was in a rebellious period and was disobedient. I often persuade them to study hard on the phone and do n’t look like us in the future.
Beijing News: For you, Beijing and your hometown, which one are you closer to?
Li Ming: I am closer to Beijing. I have stayed here for more than 20 years and I am less than 40 years old. Usually only the New Year can go back, mainly because of work reasons, garbage will not be on holiday. If you want to go home, please ask someone to help on duty. I haven't returned to my hometown in the past two years. When the children were on vacation, they took them and the elderly to Beijing. Moreover, during the Chinese New Year, there are three times the salary, and we also want to make more money.
Beijing News: Do you plan to stay in Beijing or return to your hometown in the future?
Li Ming: Go back in the future. My hometown is always my home. No matter how good Beijing is, my hometown is better. There is no hukou here, and the house is not my own. It's just that life is under stress and I can't go back.
I bought a house in my hometown in Fuyang last year, but I haven't got it yet. I plan to let the elderly and children live first. When I go back in the future, I will renovate the house and reunite with my family.