Mapping the seventh ring – Exploring the city’s garbage

Wang Jiuliang's Google map of Beijing's dumps

“If the milk we drink and the mutton in our hot pots and the vegetables on our tables are coming from places next to the dump, it’s hard to say garbage isn’t affecting our lives,” Wang said.

Wang’s photography work in the dumps already won the gold award for Outstanding Artist of the Year at the 2009 Lianzhou International Photography Festival.

“The best prize for my work is this chance to raise environmental awareness,” he said. “Everyone is both a producer and victim of trash. Consumerism is the real criminal.”

His project has already influenced the habits of himself and his friends. He carries his own toothbrush and towel and refuses to use the disposable ones supplied by hotels. Some of his friends have also been inspired to become vegetarians.

“I’m not an extreme environmentalist. I just believe that sometimes we must control our desire to consume if we want to reduce our trash,” he said.

Wang hopes his documentary will be able to reach more viewers than his photos did. Next year it will be entered in the Cinéma du Réel international film festival in France.

He is now planning his next project, a supermarket that will only sell packaged goods he collects from the dump.