Waste collectors headed for the scrapheap

Thousands of unregistered residents are facing eviction from Dongxiaokou village, a recycling center in the north of Beijing, as a result of the city government's accelerating urban renewal program. The move has prompted both social and environmental concerns, as Wang Yanfei reports.

At about noon on Jan 1, Xie Peng curled up on a tattered cushion on the ground and ate his meager lunch, a single pancake that cost 5 yuan (75 cents).

Shivering in the cold, the 60-year-old waste collector was waiting to meet with store assistants from the Zhuozhan shopping center, a large mall in Beijing's Haidian district, who sell discarded wrapping paper.