By recycling plastics, couple supports children to complete university study (3)

By operating a small waste plastics processing station, the 53-year-old couple Zhu Jiagu and Liu Jianying has provided support to their two sons financially. One of their sons has graduated from university. The other has earned his doctorate and even studied in Germany for one year.

Zhu and Liu are from central China's Jiangxi Province. In January 2004, Zhu, the husband, came to Hengyang, a city in central China's Hunan Province. He rented a retried house of a power plant and set up a waste plastics processing station. His wife Liu jointed him later. They worked more than 10 hours a day and did everything from plastic recycling, classification, processing, cleaning, to loading and transporting. The room is filled with colorful recycled plastic bottles.

"I'm so tired", Liu repeated these words, but with smiles on her face. Due to ten years of hard work, the couple has got calluses and tears on their hands. "For our children, we have never afraid of anything. Bitter is also a blessing. I believe we will have a better life with our hands", Zhu said.

The couple said they did this in order to feed their families, but now they do this because they do not want to increase the economic burden on their sons.