Thursday, September 09, 2010

How do you say "Recycle" in Cantonese?

Our apartment complex has approximately 350 units. I would estimate there are about 1,000 people living here. To service the entire complex, there are three recycling bins the size of San Francisco's home recycling bins (about 50 gallons each): One for paper; one for plastic; one for aluminum. There are no bins for glass, batteries or oil. I went online to find a place to recycle batteries. A government site listed the nearby Hopewell Center as having a recycling bin for batteries so I called the Hopewell Center. After being transferred three times, I was told recycling was on the fourth floor. So, I went to the fourth floor and found nothing. Everyone I spoke to just offered a puzzled look with I showed them by bag of used batteries. So I tried the local electronics store where I purchased my TV and vacuum cleaner. They told me to go to the MTR station and ask in one of the government buildings. And that's what I did. The first government building sent me around the corner to Southorn Center. I was looking for "Cellphone" Center because that's what I thought I heard the helpful government worker say. Anyway, the Southorn Center houses the Environmental Protection Department. On the first floor of the building was a container, no bigger than a shoe box for collecting rechargeable batteries. Since I had a bag of regular batteries I decided to visit the Environmental Protection Department on the 5th floor. The first guy I encountered spoke very little English and he called on another guy. The second guy told me about the container on the first floor but I explained I had regular batteries. He explained there was no place to recycle regular batteries in Hong Kong and I should just throw them in the rubbish bin. This from an employee at the Environmental Protection Department. How disappointing.

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