Beijing's Automatic Recycling Machines

A young child places a plastic bottle into a recycling machine and waits with glee for his 1 jiao coin reward. According to a small article in today's Beijing News, the recycling machine pictured above can be found by the South Gate of Chaoyang Park. The report concludes by announcing that more of the machines are set to gradually start appearing througout Beijing's residential areas.

But it seems that the machines aren't exactly new - last August, China Economic Net reported on the presence of the Beijing-made plastic eaters on Shanghai's Nanjing Lu.

Speaking of things environmental, yesterday was Earth Day and local environmental group Greening the Beige marked the day with a BBQ. Our favorite local daily, the Beijing News, picked up a prize for best environmental reporting in the 2009 SEE-TNC Eco-Awards for their coverage of the lake-dredging and lining controversy at Yuanming Yuan (The Garden of Perfect Brightness or Old Summer Palace). The award is sponsored by the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology and The Nature Conservancy and was designed to highlight and support grassroots environmental projects across China.

Finally, one of my favorite web sites, The Big Picture (we've linked to them before here, here and here) has also put up a special album devoted to Earth Day.

Links and Sources

The Beijing News: 吞废品吐零钱
China Economic Net: Recycling machine proves a hit
The Big Picture: Earth Day
Greening the Beige: Earth Day BBQ