TWO months after Gao Zhijun suspended his graduate studies in civil engineering at Tongji University to work full time in rubbish collection and recycling, he found himself at the centre of a national debate about whether his move was wise.

A common argument on the side of those opposing his decision was that he was not only wasting his education but also snatching jobs from the "lower class" of people who supposedly have no recourse but to make a living out of waste collection.

It is not surprising that such a view has appealed to a large number of netizens given the fact that China is becoming an increasingly status-segregated society where rubbish collectors and graduates from top universities seem to be at the opposite extremes of the social ladder.

Fortunately for him, he has managed to get the Tongji's authorities on his side, supporting an ambition they accept as more than simply collecting rubbish and earning a few bucks from it.

Born and raised in a family of successful small business owners in East China, Gao said that since he was young he had developed business intuition which helped him to see the lucrative prospects for the rubbish recycling business in Shanghai.

Business intuition

Topping Chinese cities in material consumption, Shanghai annually produces more than 4 million tons of waste materials, the recycling value of which is estimated at 1.7 billion yuan (US$200 million), according to statistics from the Shanghai Waste Material Recycling Trade Association (SWMRTA). However, because of the bad reputation attached to the trade and the consequent under-development of the industry, a large amount of the waste material is either taken away from Shanghai for recycling by migrant peasant workers or is never properly recycled locally.

Among the numerous problems the trade is facing, Gao is particularly worried about the fact that most people engaged in the trade are from the least-educated segment of the population and only know that a used drink carton is worth 1 jiao (slightly over US$0.01) but cannot distinguish between different kinds of waste material and their respective potential values.

"To collect rubbish may seem to be an easy and degrading job which only migrant peasant workers with little alternative would take, but it does take educated people with technological know-how and commercial awareness to run it like an efficient business and an industry," said Gao.

Having a broad vision in mind, Gao is willing to start from where he is - the campus of Tongji University. Gao estimated that financial gains from recycling rubbish produced on the campus could be around 350,000 yuan (US$42,000) a year. Apart from the substantial financial returns, Gao also sees a variety of other benefits such an undertaking could bring to the university, such as meeting the urgent need for rubbish disposal on campus, maintaining public sanitation and improving campus safety by only allowing in accredited rubbish collectors.

Therefore he pitched his idea to the university authorities. Though not taken seriously at first, Gao was later asked by an official at the principal's office to research the trade and submit a report detailing the feasibility and prospects of setting up a rubbish recycling business under the auspices of the university. He submitted an 11-page report in a few weeks and was given the go-ahead for his plan.

"The top-level people are part of what I love about Tongji because they have the insight and the scope to encourage entrepreneurship on campus," said Gao.

Despite having to work long hours each day for his newly established rubbish recycling business at the university, Gao still finds the time to talk to the national and local media. As he said: "I see no reason to shun publicity as I am doing a worthwhile task for the public good."