A bizarre video has emerged from China of a public toilet which has been fitted with facial recognition technology to cut down on toilet paper waste.

To get paper from the public convenience in Fuzhou, Fujian Province people are now forced to stand in front of a machine on the wall which scans their faces for around three seconds before dispensing exactly 70 centimetres of toilet paper.

Should a person require more paper, he or she would need to wait nine minutes before the machine would dispense the paper.

So far the machine has cut paper waste by half, according to local authorities.

Bizarre footage has emerged from China of a paper dispenser machine with facial recognition technology deployed in a Chinese public toilet to prevent paper waste.

The video, filmed in Fuzhou, Fujian Province on July 8, shows the staff putting a roll of toilet paper into the paper dispenser machine and locking it.

A customer stands in front of the machine to scan his face for around three seconds and then 70cm-long paper comes out automatically for him to use.

The same person can only take out the toilet paper again after nine minutes.

The aim of installing the machine was to reduce the excessive paper waste.

According to the management, it helped save around half of the paper used in the public toilet.