The whirring sound from a shop without a signboard never fails to catch the passersby's glance.

 

 Iong Seng Fun, 40, throws piles of old cardboard behind him into one of the two cardboard balers in the shop and sprinkles the papers with water as the machine starts crushing.

 

Iong has worked in a 30-year-old recycling company in Rua da Barca for eight years, saying that the recycling industry has been very helpful for the management of waste in Macao. He reveals that more than 10 tons of old cardboard are baled in their shop every day and associating with their partners, a barge loaded with recyclables in an estimated weight of 300 tons is sent offshore twice a month.

 

"The industry is struggling to survive in society and many members have quit in recent years," says Iong. He indicates that the main challenges are high costs in logistics, labor and rental, falling prices of the export and the shortage of laborers.

 

The recycling industry which relies on exporting recyclables to the mainland has suffered the brunt of China's recycling policy. In July, China notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of the import ban of several types of "foreign wastes" including plastics by the end of 2017. Iong says the shop has stopped to collect plastics and they can now only live on cardboard, newspapers, electronic appliances and metals.

 

The local companies can only trade recyclables to the mainland with a permit. Iong is concerned about the issue of approval in the future, saying that the corporation with recycling plants in the mainland is decisive to their business.

 

According to Iong, there are six people including him and the owner working for the recycling company which has two stores in Macao peninsula.

 

 "Even sons of our boss refused to take over the shops," Iong says, adding that the industry is coming to an end as young people no longer consider it as a career prospect.

 

The recycling export industry offsets the lack of local sorting infrastructure which depends on the only existing waste incineration plant in Macao. However, the government's new policy of granting subsidies for machinery does not seem to reduce the pressure of the industry. Iong was disappointed when he learned that their shop's grant application was rejected, and so were the applications of other recycling companies.

 

Iong hopes for more assistance from the government and believes that new machines could enhance the capacity and efficiency of treating a vast volume of collected wastes.

 

The recycling industry in Macao is facing its downfall but, for now at least, many members in the industry like Iong continue to hang on to it, stacking up bushels of cardboard and scrap newspapers in their stores every day.