Priyanka Sharma

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    IT’S a Sunday morning, you go out to for a walk, the walk turns out to be longer than expected, you get hungry, grab a cup of Mitang, some baozi, take your time and enjoy your first bite of the day but then all of a sudden your leisure walk turns into a dustbin hunt.

    What happened to all the dustbins? I swear I saw one here just the other day!

    Shenzhen’s management authorities concluded that there are way too many public trash cans in the city and have decided to cut their number in half.

    So now you have two choices, either you will be a responsible citizen and hold on to your trash till you find a dustbin, in which case you may even end up carrying it all the way back home, or wait till no one is looking, quickly drop it in a corner and walk away as if nothing happened.

    Now I know most of you will say that you will go for the first option and be the responsible citizen.

    But just imagine that you were not alone but accompanied by your 2-year-old son who decided to have his morning poop during your walk, you change his diaper like a good parent but now you are forced to carry that stinky, overloaded diaper in one hand while your son holds your other.

    Or it’s not a leisurely Sunday morning walk but it’s Monday morning run, you are rushing for an important meeting, you are all suited up. You pick your briefcase, grab a banana on your way out, finish while walking to the metro station but now you are stuck with the banana peel until you reach the metro station and hope that the authorities haven’t removed that as well.

    Now how many of you will be going for the first option?

    Even with the previous number of trash cans in the city, there were times when I had to walk with dog poop in my hands for quite some distance before I could get rid of it. I don’t know about other dog owners, but I find it quite a task to walk with two adrenaline-pumped canines while needing to hold their waste as well.

    Many people in the city think dropping garbage in public areas is a social service because it helps ensure job security for the city’s cleaner. Cutting the number of trash cans will just give these people another excuse to litter the streets.

    Have you been to the city’s popular food streets at Dongmen, Huaqiangbei and Pingzhou? Those places are a dream come true for foodies, but be careful before taking a strong whiff of the mouthwatering food as it may come with the complimentary stench of a nearby garbage pile.

    Every three months or so, my office organizes a hiking trip to a random mountain in the city with the main purpose of picking up trash. After every trip, we seem to pick up more garbage than in the previous one.

    This odd idea that fewer trash cans will result in less garbage on the streets originated in Taiwan. Apparently, trash cans have become a rare site in Taiwan since the enforcement of the mandatory garbage classification policy that encourages Taiwan’s residents to take all of their garbage home to sort it.

    Our authorities have taken a leap of faith and are trying to apply the same policy in Shenzhen. I for one do not share their optimism. If residents need to classify their garbage, then introduce the color-coded trash can system that has already been introduced in many residential complexes. But making people carry their garbage for hours before they reach any trash can seems like a stinky idea.

    (The author is an aspiring writer with a passion for travel and photography.)