Garbage recycling picks up among students in Chengdu

When Wang Jianchao was a child, he used to pick up discarded metal cans from the streets and sell them for money to buy snacks. His father, from time to time, then used to caution him, saying: "You need to study hard, or you will be left with no choice but to pick up garbage when you grow up."

Wang, born in 1980, then went on to become an engineer working for Microsoft in 2005. But this did not prevent his father's prophecy from coming true.

After quitting his job at Microsoft five years later, Wang started to deal with garbage.

He launched a technology-based garbage recycling unit called Aobag in March 2017 in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, to encourage recycling.

His company now collects recyclable garbage from its members and sells it to paper mills and manufacturers of milk cartons. A portion of the money made from the sales is then transferred to the trash provider.

So far, Aobag has more than 2,000 members, including not only adults but also students from kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.

Aobag established a relationship with the Experimental Primary School of Sichuan Normal University in September.

Speaking about the link, Gao Tao, the school's vice-principal, says: "Our communities have not done well in garbage recycling, so, we hope that by teaching children about this, we can make a difference."