In many countries the need to recycle is drummed into you. There are recycling boxes in every classroom and beside every desk in most work places. In China, it is not part of office culture unless you can make money from it and most individuals don't think twice about throwing something away.

A kilo of newspapers can earn you 0.8 yuan and a 1.5 liter empty plastic bottle is approximately 0.4 yuan, although prices depend on the seller - those people you see towing huge trailers on three-wheeled cycles around the city's streets. The seller buys the goods and then delivers them to factories where they are sold for a higher price.

People can make a living from buying or collecting recyclable material, and often elderly citizens are able to supplement their pension. Sadly, this practice removes the individual responsibility to recycle and dispose of rubbish in bins because it is perceived as somebody else's job to pick up your litter.

Singapore is renowned for its clean streets and litter free parks. The litter law in Singapore clearly states each individual is responsible for disposing his or her own rubbish. Dropping a small piece of trash is an offence subject to S$1000 ($718) for first-time offenders.

Likewise in Australia, failure to dispose of garbage correctly in streets and parks is an offence subject to an A$200 ($168) "on-the-spot" fine and A$75 ($60) for dropping a cigarette butt.

In both countries, recycling and disposing of litter responsibly are considered an individual responsibility.

After years of government and non-government organizations campaigning for recycling and disposing of trash responsibly, it is ingrained in people's mindset and littering no longer needs to be policed because a certain level of community policing exists. If you dare to throw a plastic bottle or cigarette butt on the floor, you will receive a dirty look from people near you and be guilt-tripped into picking the trash off the ground.

I know disposing of trash responsibly is not common practice in China, but every time I see someone throw an empty bottle on the ground, I cringe. How can someone feel they will be too inconvenienced to drop a bottle in the bin when a bin is usually five meters from their feet? Let alone dropping recyclable material in the "recycle" section of the bin.

One look into the segregated section of the bin labeled "recycle" shows most of the contents would not pass the stringent criteria for recyclable products in other countries.

Individuals have no hope of doing the right thing because, regardless of good intentions, the rubbish all gets thrown into the same garbage truck.

By comparison, Australian households have two bins - one large bin for recycling and a smaller bin for non-recyclable rubbish. Two garbage trucks travel down each street; one emptying the recycling and one collecting the rubbish.

To make matters worse, when you bike down a Chinese street late at night you realize why some people don't even bother putting trash into bins in the first place. The bins are overturned and piles of litter line the street, waiting for someone to sift through them searching for plastic bottles and other recyclable material.

It seems like a no win situation. However, there are advantages of disposing garbage responsibly that include minimizing the dangers of broken glass and sharp metal on the streets, the unsightly view of rubbish, injury to wildlife and pollution in waterways.

While it may seem pointless to do the right thing and dispose of litter responsibly, every social change needs to start somewhere. An educational campaign on the benefits of disposing litter responsibly and a social awareness campaign on what the world would look like if recycling did not exist, led by governments and Chinese environmental groups, is badly needed. Recycling and disposing of litter needs to be taken seriously by businesses and governments to prevent the few people who are doing the right thing to give up and join the masses.

China Daily