How do you picture your retirement? Spending time with your family? Enjoying your hobbies? Or maybe rummaging through the trash looking for bottles to sell for a little extra cash?

According to the World Bank, some 2.5 million people work in the “informal waste management sector” in China, picking through trash for recyclable materials to sell. As any visitor to a major Chinese city will soon notice, many of these trash pickers are elderly people, unable to support themselves on meager government pensions.

China has the fastest growing aging population in the world. By 2050, 437 million people — a third of the population — will be more than 60 years old.

Millions more under-60 are already pensioners, due to China’s low retirement age. Currently, men working in the public sector finish work at 60, while female white collar workers retire at 55, and blue collar women stop work at the comparatively sprightly age of 50. A 2007 United Nations study estimated that in 2005 there were 16 retirees for every 100 workers in China. By 2025, the ratio will be 64 to 100.

China’s pension system is already showing the strain. Almost 50 percent of provinces are unable to pay retiree costs and rely on financial assistance from Beijing. A report by . . . . read more