The Queen of Trash
Cheung Yan is one of the most successful businesswomen in the world. She made billions of dollars. How did she do it ? Does she sell computers? Does she sell diamonds? Does she sell real estate? No. She sells trash. In fact, many people call her the Queen of Trash.
Cheung was in China in 1957. Her family wasn’t rich. When Cheung was young woman, she worked as an accountant. She saved some money, and she moved to Hong Kong. There, she became interested in the paper trash business. She and two partners started a company with a small amount of money. The company collected paper trash and sold it to paper mills.
Then Cheung had an idea. China had a shortage of paper. Cheung knew just where to get paper for China. In 1990, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles. There they found paper-tons of it. They drove their van to garbage dumps around Los Angeles. They collected the paper trash. Then they exported the trash to China. What did Chinese factories do with Cheung’s paper trash? Then they made the cardboard into packing boxes. They electronics, and clothing. They sent these products to the United States and Europa.
In 1996, Cheung moved back to China. She started her own paper-making company called Nine Dragons Paper. Today, Cheung buys paper trash in the United States and Europa. She sends it to her factory in China. Then she makes it into materials for packaging. Big companies like Sony use her packaging. When people in the United States and Europa receive their “Made in China” products, they throw the packing boxes away as trash.
Cheung gets the boxes and recycles them again into packaging.
What Kind of person is Cheung? She’s a little mysterious. She almost never gives interviews. Other businesspeople say she’s good at making deals. She develops good strategies for her business. She works very hard, and she expects her employees to work hard, too.
The Queen of Trash is hardworking businesswoman. She started her own company , and she made is grow. What will her future be? She hopes she will be successful for many years. Cheung knows one important thing : There will always be paper trash that she can recycle again and again.