China's junk collectors, many of whom peddle flat-bed tricycles through neighborhoods while hollering melodic tunes offering to haul away residents' recyclables, may soon be required to get a business license.

 

While many say it's an unworkable plan, the country is seeking a more sophisticated approach to recycling.

 

Scrap collectors like Lao Yu in the coastal city of Dalian in northeast China’s Liaoning Province can be seen peddling heavy loads of waste paper, scrap steel, discarded home electronics or perhaps a three-meter stack of Styrofoam that dwarfs his tricycle.

 

"I never thought we would need to get a license to collect scrap," Lao Yu, who has made a living collecting for four years, told a local newspaper.

 

The regulation on recycling resources, which will come into effect on May 1, stipulates that scrap collectors should not only obtain a business license, but also register with their local commerce bureaus, which is responsible for the recycling sector.

 

Lao Yu is worried he might not qualify for a license, and his concerns are shared by administrative officials as well.

 

"Junk collectors move from street to street and lane to lane, they don't operate from a fixed place, which is a requirement for a business license," said an official with the business license registration office in Zhengzhou of Henan Province.

 

If they're driven out of business by strict enforcement of the regulation many scrap collectors would be left with nothing to do as most are from the countryside and have had little education or skills training.

 

Junk collectors like Lao Yu say perhaps the collectors who work in the same district could organize and form a group that operates under a single business license.

 

Some of the recyclers are in favor of the licensing plan. They say it will legitimize their work and they would no longer have to worry about being harassed by local administrators for working in an unregulated sector.

 

A report in People's Daily estimates there are ten million junk collectors in the country.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2007)