China's War On Waste

China needs to modernise trash management. Does this mean edging out small-time scavengers? 101 East investigates.

China was once the dumping ground for half the world's rubbish. But with 1.4 billion citizens, they are now struggling to cope with their own.

With vast leaky landfills and hazardous backyard recycling centres. Beijing wants to modernise how it takes out the trash.

That means big changes for the army of scavengers who swarm through the streets of the nation's capital every morning. Piece by piece, they collect recyclable rubbish tossed aside by the city's 22 million residents.