The post secondary students have set up a website allowing residents to log-on and arrange for a pickup of their recyclables.

The students set up the business to make money and to save the environment. Wang Ke, one of the five partners in the business, believes 1.5 million yuan worth of pop bottles are discarded everyday in Beijing.

"We set up the website because we're young people with ambition and a deep concern for the environment," said Wang.

The website can be found at www.hbtt2008.com and its name translated from Chinese means Paradise Environmental Protection.

After logging on and arranging a pickup at a Beijing residence or business usually a clean-cut university student arrives to collect newspapers, bottles, cardboard or anything else that can be recycled.

Traditional garbage collectors are often the very poor people or peasants from the countryside.

Wang says his partners from the elite Beijing University of Technology, are studying marketing and accounting. "The website had helped us realize our dream of starting a business that is also beneficial to society," Wang said.

It all began with each of the partners putting up 200 yuan (25 US dollars). So far they have made 68 pickups in their first month of operation.

They have already expanded and have more than 10 employees, including laid-off workers, part-time workers and some volunteers from the university.

Wang and his colleagues can often been seen on the street publicizing their website with large posters that promote environmental protection.

There are no large companies engaged in house to house recycling which has a huge market potential and low risks reported the China Youth Daily.