Transcript and Answers to Using rubbish to help Thailand's poorest go green

A dirty job reserved for Thailand's poorest. Nom and Rai are scavengers: each day they comb dustbins in their area looking for recyclable rubbish to sell. The money they make isn't always enough to live on -- but an innovative scheme is helping them out. 

 "When we're starving, we can find rubbish to exchange for rice to eat, detergent, soap and everything." 

The husband and wife bring used bottles, cartons, cans and paper to this shop and trade them in for food and other goods - no cash needed. The shop works as a cooperative for local people. By selling to the recycling plants in bulk, it gets a better rate than individual scavengers would manage on their own. And profits from the shop are then paid back in dividends to its members. 

 "Sometimes we would have to buy things like fish sauce or rice on credit at shops. But people looked down on us as we're poor and they'd wonder whether they would get their money back. So that's why we started up our own shop." 

The project's success is inspiring others too -- in another part of Bangkok, people recently set up their own cash-free shop to which they take along their household rubbish. About a quarter of Thailand's garbage is currently recycled -- but that's largely thanks to scavengers rather than efforts by consumers to separate their waste. It's hoped schemes like this will help people be more environmentally responsible. 

 "Recycling is not an alien word any more. Everyone is aware that recycling can help the world one way or another. So people are more aware and people want to take more action. But I think what we are lacking now is the system in place." 

The goal is to set up 80 cash-free recycling shops across Thailand by the end of 2013 and there's a lot of international interest too. More and more communities are coming together to help themselves -- and the environment. 

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