Wudian Road: Boulevard of Broken Rubbish Bags Caught in a Limbo of Forsaken Responsibility

You may not be able to hear dama asking you 你是什么垃圾？Nǐ shì shénme lā jī (What type of trash are you/ What type of trash are you going to throw whenever you tidy out your space and take the rubbish out), but the past year of the capital's trash-sorting campaign is beginning to show some results. People seem to be more mindful about throwing their milk tea bottles away, and due to the hassle of keeping several trash bins at home, some of my friends are attempting to reduce their general waste production altogether. Nevertheless, as the sun casts its light, there too must be a shadow. And in this case, it's Wudian Road, a street that's brimming with trash just outside the south 4th ring road.

Compared to the rest of Beijing, the city's south side is relatively under-developed, despite a recent spate of construction and the few folks who stand to gain millions from it. Even still, this rubbish-ridden street is markedly worse than anyone might've imagined of Beijing, some 13 years after the Summer Olympic Games and its attendant beautification efforts. 

According to residents living in the area, the problem largely began when a few bags of trash were thoughtlessly left on the street following this year's Spring Festival. Soon after, proper waste disposal went full-blown laissez-faire until eventually, folks started regarding the place as a "free to litter" zone – as opposed to a "litter-free" zone – which resulted in the birth of this stinky, notorious street.

From old mattresses caked with dirt to bags of organic waste that have become an open-air buffet for flies, innumerable varieties of junk haunt the 100-meter long street. For instance, the neighborhood lacks dustbins forcing some folks to resort to the pavement, while other types of waste are the product of nearby reclamation depots who use the area as a dumping ground for anything that doesn't turn a sizable profit or takes up too much space in the truck, such as mattresses and old clothing. To make matters worse, cold-chain trucks are disposing of unwanted seafood, which certainly doesn't bode well for the impending arrival of summer. And finally, Beijing can get pretty damn windy, meaning trash scatters all over the place culminating in serious hazards to residents’ health, as well as a danger to pedestrians and vehicles passing by.

Despite all of these problems, the hot mess hasn’t been addressed by any local authority, ostensibly due to its location on the border of Fengtai and Daxing, meaning both districts are waiting for the other to make a move. Daxing’s government claims that most of the buildings on Wudian belong to Fengtai residents which places it under their jurisdiction, while delegates from Fengtai’s government point out that the majority of the land belongs to Daxing, and thus it’s their responsibility to keep it clean. And of course, all the helpless residents – who have repeatedly reported their situation to the 12345 hotline – are stuck in the middle. Either way, at this point it seems the most plausible solution is to find the axis of the street and assign responsibility accordingly. But until then, residents will have to continue urging the powers-that-be to get their hands on this thorny task, lest it continues to drag out in tedious, finger-pointing negotiation processes. 

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Images: Beijing Daily