A program that brings back memories of dragging down my own recylables to the curb, the China.org articleBeijing sets ‘recycling’ day and offers door-to-door collection highlights a new effort by BEijing to increase recylcing in the capital city.

On Saturday municipal authorities set up 18 collection spots in various city communities and made public contact numbers for collection companies designated for each district. Now residents can enjoy door-to-door service by making a phone appointment with collection agencies.

Operationally, I am not sure of the economics given dumpster divers have a significantly reduce cost to them though, a mainstay of Shanghai and many other cities, but the article does address the size of the existing network:

Beijing has more than 3,000 collection centers for recyclable waste, covering both urban and suburban districts.

From an education perspective though, this is a program that (like in the US) could net huge gains not only in volume, but also in externalities:

Each collection spot had received around one tonne of waste apiece by late Saturday, said the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce, co-organizer of the campaign. But a large number of Beijing residents’ buildings do not have separate recyclable waste facilities and residents only occasionally sell the waste to individual dealers.

Duan said the “recycling” day and its connected services would be “gradually” expanded to suburban districts and cover almost all resident communities by 2015.

It is also planned to reward residents and organizations who regularly turn in recyclable wastes.

So.. perhaps not the most efficient manner to promote recylcing, and sure to put a few of those independent dealers (PC for dumpster divers) out of work, but if the education portion of this program can be ramps up and really drive more people to begin using and believing in formal systems.. then that will be a major victory.