Wrapped

I decided to continue with the absurdities from China …. They are so many. Enjoy J

Somebody said that China is going to lead the world in a fight against the global warming, climate change and blablabla … Don’t count on that!

The huge amount of waste you produce on daily basis just by fulfilling your basic needs (having a lunch and coffee) is stunning. Recycling does not exist here. Even not on a “green” Nanjing University campus. Well, in theory, there are bins for “recyclable” and “unrecyclable” waste almost everywhere, but one gaze inside reveals the sweet secret that 1) nobody cares, and 2) nobody even knows what “recyclable” means. No definition what you can put in the “recyclable” bin ever seen.

As a "true Freiburger" I am trying to limit my waste as much as possible, so I purchased a water bottle and reusable box for food. Exactly on that day I proudly announced the sales person in one of the small fastfood restaurants on a campus that I would like to “take away”  打包, but to my own box and I gave him my box. In few minutes I helplessly observed him receiving my ordered dinner from the kitchen already perfectly packed in a disposable plastic box and plastic bag. He opened the box, used disposable chopsticks to transport the content of the box to my reusable plastic box, threw away the disposable box and the chopsticks and with a lovely smile passed me my reusable box … than he stopped smiling because he encountered with my shocked-angry face telling him, that this is not what I meant. If there were door and not the plastic-stripy-whatever curtain, I would perhaps smash it.

dinner in my reusable plastic box ... the lovely egg heart calmed me down a little bit

All the packages, wrappings of food are so exaggerated here. Buying a box of biscuits means, that you buy huge box (with promising illustration picture on it) which is full of plastic. After you spent ages on digging into it (meaning opening the box, first package, and then individually wrapped biscuits) you might find a disappointing piece of something which is totally different from what you expected and what is on the picture. Lesson 1: Never expect anything. Lesson 2: Do not buy biscuits.

biscuits are almost always disappointment

Another. Taking a takeaway coffee is often not really different from having a coffee in a coffee place. Even in a very fancy places I got my black drug into a dispodable paper cup with a plastic cover, often in plastic bag. Totally ruined coffee experience. So, the most common sentence I use when shopping is “I don’t need a bag” 袋子不要 , repeated twice, because they are usually very fast and I am slow.

gallery coffee in Shanghai - lovely heart in a paper cup

The Book of Rites says that, one should first "cultivate himself, then manage the family, then govern the state, and finally lead the world into peace" 修身齐家治国平天下 and China has still a long path to go in order to understand the concept of recycling and waste management.

At least they stopped buying rubbish from the Czech Republic.