I spent most of the morning in a steel mill a few hours outside of Bangkok (Thailand: come for the beaches, stay for the heavy industry). By their nature, steel mills aren’t the cleanest places, but this one was better than most. Or, at least it seemed that way until thirty minutes ago, when I…
All posts in Scrap
Bangkok Scrap!
I couldn’t spend a week down here without Bringing the Scrap to my readers. So, here it is, Scrap in Ayudhaya (roughly 45 minutes from Bangkok): Thailand is Southeast Asia’s auto manufacturing hub and, as a result, there’s quite a bit of defective automobile scrap on the market down here, as well as a well-defined…
Beer Can Art is Universal
Beer can art is – understandably – an undervalued and much abused art form (with apologies to the sublime Jasper Johns). But, before today, it had never occurred to me that it was universal, much less potentially sublime, and even poignant. Below, the only known (to me) example of a Thai beer can wind chime.…
The Chinese E-Scrap Evolution
Currently, China throws away roughly 120 million waste appliances per year, including computers, televisions/monitors, washing machines, refrigerators, and air-conditioners. Yet, for the better part of two decades, most environmental activists concerned with China have taken a far greater interest in how foreigners dispose of their wastes in China (for example, attention devoted to the e-scrap…
Big Dumb Recycling Machine.
[12 September 2008 – Suddenly, this post is generating several hits per day from Venezuela. Could someone explain why?] A couple of weeks ago Shanghai Daily reported that China’s first automatic “drinking bottle recycling machine” had been installed on Nanjing Road for RMB 30,000 (US$4290). The idea is simple: after finishing your canned or bottled…
Scrappy Earth Day
There’s so much good cheer in China these last few days, I managed to totally overlook the fact that today – April 22 – is Earth Day. So, in the spirit of trying to find something positive to say in an increasingly poisonous environment (let me count the ways), I will – as Earth Day…
In Regard to Filial Duties Performed in Stairwells, Pt. 2
On the occasion of the first observance of Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Festival) as a public holiday in modern Chinese history, I’d like to return to a topic that I mentioned in February. Namely, the unfortunate tendency of honored, filial neighbors to burn ghost money in the stairwell of my apartment building (for additional instances…
Recycling Money and the Peddler King.
Shanghaiist makes an interesting proposal for supporting Shanghai’s poorest: Put a small bill in an empty water or pop bottle. Throw it in a public bin. The people who will find the cash are the folk that make a living trawling through garbage- and we bet that even a 5RMB note will make a big…
Scrap Made In China
Of China’s many critical environmental issues, I believe the one that receives the least attention is the one most tangible to the average Chinese: namely, how to throw away and/or recycle all the worn out and broken stuff that Chinese businesses and consumers have been acquiring for the last thirty years. For much of the…
Avoid Tall Buildings.
[3/13 addendum at end of post] Like many expats, I’ve long been suspicious of the building materials utilized in Shanghai’s – and China’s – two-decade construction boom. The concrete, I’ve noticed, seems to crack too quickly; the rebar inside of that concrete has an uncanny tendency to rust and emerge from that cracking concrete too…