Zhang Damin and his wife, both from Gushi County, Henan Province, work in the second link of the chain, and take their full loads to Chen Liguo’s scrap collecting station. “Basically, all of us were taken into this trade by friends or relatives. There are somewhere between one or two hundred thousand people like us in Beijing. Most of the collectors around here are natives of Gushi County. See that restaurant called ‘Gushi Hometown Geese’ at the crossroad? It opened especially for Gushi natives. There we can get real hometown meals at a reasonable price. There are schools especially for children of Gushi natives near every big scrap collecting station.”

Gushi is the most populous county in Henan Province, with a population of 1.6 million. The per capita land is minimal, so more than 500,000 people go out to make a living in other parts of the country. Apart from those who go to southern China, most are working in Beijing and Shanghai as scrap collectors. Zhang Damin explains why he came all the way to Beijing to make a living. “There are three members in my family. We own a plot of less than six mu (15 mu = 1 hectare). We plant two crops per year, wheat and corn. Deduct for expenses in chemical fertilizer, pesticide, hiring farmhands and renting machines, and the income from the wheat is soon exhausted. Food and clothing are no problem, but there’s nothing left for medical care, my son’s wedding or building a house.” According to local media, the money these migrant workers mail back home makes up more than half of the local GDP.

Zhang Damin said one thing a scrap collector must have is a sharp pair of eyes. When he came to Beijing in 2005, he lost a lot of money because he could not tell regenerated plastic-steel from original plastic-steel. Usually Zhang goes from door to door, but sometimes he stays at the entrances of residential subdistricts or schools. His monthly income is somewhere between RMB 1,000 and 2,000, and although this amount is modest, it is still helpful for building his house and paying tuition for his children. He envies those scrap collectors who have ties with big clients, such as hotels, restaurants, and stores. “If you can contract the scrap collecting for an entire residential community, you can make a stable income of 3,000-4,000 yuan a month, even if you have to pay an administrative fee of several thousand yuan to the property management company,” Zhang Damin said with a hint of envy.

The Picky Sort

Nevertheless Zhang Damin from Henan Province feels luckier than those who pick scraps from garbage dumps. There is a saying in the scrap recycling industry: “People from Sichuan only pick scraps but never buy them; people from Henan only buy scraps but never pick them; and people from Hebei never enter the city but buy wholesale on the periphery of the capital.”