Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported.
In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said. A bag of ten of the recycled bands sells for just 25 fen (three cents), much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said.
"These cheap and colourful rubber bands and hair ties sell well ... threatening the health of local people," it said. Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said.
This is definitely taking recycling too far, far too far.
While we all must applaud recycling, whether here or abroad, having recently seen the secondary raw material industry in China and the amount of material that is being recycled we have to be careful as to what is going into the goods that come from China.
Then again, should we buy (not that we have much choice, say, when it comes to PCs and other stuff) from places such as China, where people are exploited in the production of them, where health and safety barely exists and where, it would appear, no one really cares much what goes into the things.
It would be nice if we would have the choice to buy “Made in Britain”, “Made in USA”, “Made in Europe” or, “Made in South Africa” even, rather than “Made in China” but, alas, as said, every component of every PC appears to be “Made in China”. The carbon footprint of any of those goods is already extremely high, simply because of the methods of production in China and in addition to that the fact that they have to get shipped to us over a long distance.
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), December 2007
Taking Recycling too far, way too far...
