He turned nails destined for the trash into wealth! He sells them at $21 per kilogram.

A habit that a woman living in China's Hebei province has maintained for years has become a social media topic.

The woman has been collecting the nails she cuts since childhood instead of throwing them away. Over time, she accumulated a large amount of nails and, by putting them up for sale, created an unconventional source of income for herself.

Selling Nails by the Kilogram

The woman who offers her collected nails for sale by the kilogram charges $21 per kilogram.

It is said that this seemingly unusual trade is linked to traditional medical practices that have come from China’s past.

From Centuries-Old Tradition to Today

According to information relayed by Dr. He Lan, who works at Peking University, human nails were used in various applications in traditional Chinese medicine in the past.

Dr. He Lan noted that nails were prescribed by traditional medicine doctors in some Chinese hospitals up to the 1960s.

One of the methods used in the past involved burning the nails until they turned to ash, then applying the resulting substance to the mother's chest area, with the baby absorbing the material through breast milk, the account says.

An Old Practice Turns into a New Revenue Stream

This traditional practice, no longer regarded as a scientific medical treatment today, resurfaced when a woman in Hebei began collecting and selling her nails.

The woman's decision to turn the nails she had accumulated over the years—rather than discard them—into a commercial product sparked both astonishment and curiosity on social media.

No detailed information has been released about who bought the nails sold at $21 per kilogram and for what purpose.