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| Recycling ads in Shenzhen Metro |
Small intro to my life, I work from 09:30-18:00, staying with my boyfriend in a small apartment in the outskirts of Shenzhen City, so travelling to work takes me 2 hours each day. I have 3 dogs, 1 cat and 1 hamster, and I'm trying to lose weight. Emphasize of the 'trying'.
So for an example day in my life:
07:50 My alarm goes off
08:25 I actually wake up and do the usuals to make myself decent
09:00 Feeding my babies(cats&dogs) then have a small pre-breakfast snack which normally consist of bananas and a box of soy milk while walking to the metro station
Trash: the aluminium/cardboard box from the soy milk
Compost: Banana peel
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| Yeo's Soy milk going into the recycling bin if there even is one |
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| Cheap and good coffee, might I say better than Starbucks |
Recycle: Paper cups and holder from the coffee, BUT there's no recycling bin in my building. so Trash it is.
Compost: Egg shells. BUT there's no compost bin in my building either(or anywhere for that matter unless you make one yourself, in which you need a garden or at least space in your kitchen)
11:00 Orders lunch on the app 饿了么
12:00 Lunch arrives in tons of plastic
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| Example of my lunch with a lot plastic containers |
Recycle: Paper/cardboard boxes the salad come in.
13:00 Finishes lunch and watch YouTube videos while I pretend to work
16:00 Tea and fruit break time
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| Plastics bagged fruits. even the dragon fruit and lime got a double bag |
Compost: Teabags, fruit skins.
18:00 Leave the depressing office as fast as I can
19:00 Order and have dinner with my boyfriend
Trash: You know already, plastic.
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| Dinner/lunch for two |
20:00 Order some groceries if I'm meal prepping
20:30 Cook and contemplates on life decisions
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| Groceries for spaghetti sauce meal prep |
22:30 Finally finish meal prep(these stuff takes so long)
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| Meal prepping is a workout |
23:00 Watch K-drama while showering
00:00 Sleep
Here's the thing...
China is so inconvenient that it becomes so convenient.
Does that make sense?
Plus, labor is so cheap here so everything can be delivered.
Moreover, people aren't properly educated here to be mindful.
By that I mean, they would rather choose a beautifully packaged already de-skinned and washed corn on a cob, rather than a organic corn with its skins still on.
Or choose a branded supermarket/delivery service rather than the traditional market. I do that too, cuz I get ripoff by the vendors from traditional markets so many times and I'm just fed up with it...
Getting plastic bags when offered even though they just got one thing.
When I refuse plastic bags at stores they get so confused.
Or when I leave notes for the food delivery guy saying I don't need their bamboo chopsticks, they'll still give it to me.
Technology advances really quick here.
But changing people takes time.
While Hongkong is already not giving people plastic straws(HK Disneyland gave me paper straws when i asked), and China is still at the stage of :"look guys, this plastic straw is bad for environment and we should recycle" but not ban it, just recycle.
*proceeds to hand out straws anyways*
