The Chinese blogs are alive with the sound of class resentment, triggered by the so-called “pro rich” proposals that Zhang Yin – once China’s richest woman – presented to the National People’s Congress last week. They certainly sound self-serving – especially the one to drop the income tax rate on China’s top earners. But what…
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If at first you don’t succeed … get subsidized.
I have a friend from Hunan who tells me that in the small town where she was raised – children who don’t devote themselves sufficiently to their schoolwork will likely be told something along the lines of: Continue like that, and you’re going to end up a rubbish picker. That is to say: memorize those…
Your Brain on Scrap
I’m at the very tail end of a several month project and my mental state – at least in regard to the writing process -is best described by the piece of steel jammed beneath the jaws of this hydraulic shear. Just a quick note on safety: don’t cut two-inch ship steel at home (with or…
Back in Scrap
A couple of emails from readers wondering when I’ll next blog about scrap. Soon, I promise. In the meantime, how about a photo of a scrap motor processing venture up Jiangsu-way? I’m not going to name the company here, but I will say that they are likely China’s largest importer of ferrous scrap, and –…
Yes, we have no scrap.
The name of this blog is Shanghai Scrap, and if you didn’t bother to read or visit Shanghai Scrap you might be excused for thinking that – instead of hosting a blog – shanghaiscrap.com actually hosts a Shanghai-based scrap trading company. Of course, you’d only make that error if you didn’t bother to look at…
China’s E-Scrap Nightmare Just Isn’t What It Used to Be.
On May 4, 2007, Jeffrey Weidenhamer and Michael L. Clement of Ashland University in Ohio published “Leaded electronic waste is a possible source material for lead-contaminated jewelry” in Chemosphere, a scientific journal “related to the environment and human health.” The paper is technical, but the hypothesis it attempts to prove is straightforward. According to the…
Television Graveyard, Northern China
Below, a photo of the largest television graveyard north of the Yangtze River and, quite possibly, the largest one in all of China. Televisions brought to this location are – on average – twenty years old, Chinese-manufactured, and black and white models. They are procured nationwide, with most of the sets in this image having…
The Shanghai Cable Guy and the Future of Chinese Quality
The other night I was startled by the smell of burnt rubber wafting into my living room. I immediately went sniffing for the source, and after a very brief search I noticed smoke coming from the electrical socket connected to the space heater in my bedroom. The cable was hot as I pulled it from…
Vietnam Scrap, Pt. 2
I’ve been meaning to mention that Recycling International has published the second part of my very long journey into Vietnam’s developing scrap markets. Meanwhile, Scrap magazine has the entire article in its current issue. Neither magazine has made the text available online, though Scrap will add it to the magazine’s online archives in a few…
How to Benefit the Environment and Make a Living in the Process: Strip Them Cables!
[I am on the road – with the flu – for the next couple of days. So posting will be light. Cough, cough.] Below, a few photos of a cable stripping operation in Qingyuan, about 1.5 hours north of Guangzhou. The process in the first photo reduces imported North American (in this case) communication cable…