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Is the ban logical?

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-23 08:39

City authorities in Xi'an - capital of Shaanxi province known for its Terracotta Warriors - reportedly issued a ban, prohibiting people from collecting items from litterbins and garbage piles.

Not that there is anything important, or valuable that the local officials do not want others to share. They just do not want to see a mess after people pick and choose what they want.

Here is the argument: There are upwards of 500 garbage collection facilities in Xi'an, most of which are located in densely populated communities. In spite of repeated bans, people continue to collect recyclable items from these places, resulting in second-time pollution.

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We are not into a game of words. But here is an evidently logical loophole calling for attention - the second-time pollution they wanted to address is an outcome of people collecting items from trashcans or garbage collection points, but not a necessary one. We mean, not all such behavior results in a mess being left behind after people take away what is valuable to them.

From the logical perspective, when and only when all acts of collecting things from litterbins result in second-time pollution can there be a solid ground for imposing such a blanket ban. Even from the more practical perspective of legitimacy, there is no legal basis for a rule like this one.

We do cherish the hope that the authorities will be more attentive to logic in decision-making. We believe that may add to their persuasiveness and hence credibility.

Yet we find fault with the indiscriminative ban not only from the viewpoint of logic. Allowing people to collect reusable, or recyclable items serves two practical ends. On the one hand, it benefits the environment. On the other hand, it may make some people's life easier.

Many of us have seen people picking up used plastic water bottles, coke cans or paper from litterbins. By doing that, they reduce the government's burden of waste treatment, and earn a tiny income for themselves. Instead of any harm, we see a win-win outcome. So far as we know, refuse classification remains a substantial challenge even in the city of Beijing, let alone Xi'an. Those people are actually doing what the authorities aspire to do but are unable to. In terms of environmental protection, it is far better to have those items recycled than to have them incinerated, or buried in landfills. Not to say that most people are doing it for practical, mostly financial, reasons. That is something we particularly want the authorities in Xi'an to take note of.

We speculate the authorities there may simply want to make sure that the streets of their city stay clean and tidy. That is perfectly beyond reproach. We just want to say it does not take such an expansive ban to achieve that. If second-time pollution is the sole concern, banning acts that cause second-time pollution is a better choice than the one they made.

(China Daily 10/23/2009 page8)