| Don’t say I’m
too old. Just let me do it…Protecting the
environment is my job, not someone else’s.
--Jin-Hai Li
These are the simple words of the environmental
volunteers who get up before the crack of dawn,
get dressed in the dark, and venture into the
street like little fireflies to give back to our
planet and leave a clean and unpolluted Earth
for the next generation. The volunteers’
reflective vests give them the appearance of busy
fireflies. Similarly, another group of environmental
volunteers go out into the night, through the
streets and alleys of the city like a swarm of
twinkling fireflies. They call themselves the
firefly convoy.
5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. The Early Morning
Fireflies
It is 5 a.m. when Hsi-Pin Wu’s truck pulls
up close to the piles of trash left over from
last night’s street market. On his truck
hangs a banner that reads, “Tzu Chi Recycling.”
“Good morning!” Wu gets out of his
truck, grinning from ear to ear. He bends over
and begins to sort through the trash, removing
cans and bottles. Soon, another small truck arrives
with Shan-Chi Huang driving and his son, thirteen
year-old Jing-Yuan in the passenger seat. Then
Rung-Tien Cheng drives up in his truck and seventy-four-year-old
Jin-Hai Li and seventy-eight-year-old Teh-Yun
Chen meet up at the trash heap as well…
After quick “hellos,” they get busy.
All is silent except for the occasional sounds
of bottles and cans being thrown onto the trucks.
The volunteers, young and old, quickly finish
sorting through the trash piles for recyclables
and return to their trucks. This is the first
of many recycling stops today.
Wu works at a utilities company and has been doing
recycling work for more than eight years. The
last two years he has established a routine. He
helps collect recyclables in the mornings before
going to work, and has inspired many others to
do the same. “Don’t say that nobody
wants glass. We get a great price at fifty fen
(about 1.5 cents US) a kilogram,” he says
while hoisting a bag of glass onto his truck and
wiping perspiration off his brow. He goes to bed
at ten-thirty in the evening and gets up at four
in the morning in order to do this recycling job
until seven. After that he returns home, showers,
changes his clothes and heads off to work.
Their next recycling stop is at Mr. Chen’s
house on Dali Street. His wife is waving at the
door. In a flash, a large bundle of cartons and
black bags full of bottles and cans are thrown
onto the truck.
This elderly couple has been doing volunteer recycling
work six or seven years. At first, it was Mrs.
Chen. At the time, Mr. Chen’s health prevented
him from helping. As his health improved, he began
to help with the recycling effort. They were initially
inspired by Grassroots Wisdom on Da-Ai Television,
which features everyday people who have found
more meaningful lives by helping to protect the
environment. They started by putting a large trash
can outside of their home and asking neighbors
to put recyclable items in it. Then they would
take the items to the recycling center.
Li swings a large plastic bag full of all kinds
of recyclable plastic bottles from the ground
onto his shoulders and heaves them onto his truck.
After a few more bags, a fishhook sticking out
of one of them hooks on his finger. He carefully
removes it, his finger bleeding. “Don’t
say I’m too old. Just let me do it,”
he says. He thinks of his morning recycling runs,
which began at 5 a.m., as exercise. He said, “Protecting
the environment is my job, not someone else’s.”
The convoy of trucks, filled with bottles, cans
and cardboard, drives to Kuo-Lien Hsu’s
home, the fourth recycling stop. They ask Ching-Yuan,
the youngest of the group, if he is tired. He
shakes his head. His father says to the other
volunteers that it is important for Ching-Yuan
to see what his father does before going to work.
Huang admits that at first, it was hard to get
out of bed so early, but he got used to it, even
though it gets cold during the winter. After starting
to help with recycling, he stopped going out in
the evenings and adjusted to a healthier, more
regular lifestyle, which he is thankful for.
The last stop is in front of a supermarket. Restaurants
serving breakfast are already open when the team
of trucks arrives. Students walk by in groups
of two and three on their way to school as supermarket
clerks move empty boxes to the back of the store.
Cheng follows the clerks and begins to finds clean,
intact cardboard boxes. These can be sold for
reuse at 6 or 7 dollars (about 20 cents US) per
bundle. Cheng gives the indented and ripped cardboard
boxes to Ching-Yuan and Li to put in Huang’s
truck.
Li lifts his head and sees the golden rays of
sunshine beaming down on the boxes in the truck.
This morning’s work was definitely worth
it.
7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The Evening Firefly
Convoy Moves Out
It is a hot and windless night. The streets
of Dali City are lit-up by the lights of the many
high rises. A group of Tzu Chi environmental volunteers
wearing reflective vests are walking along a street.
They go out every Tuesday and Friday evening to
collect recyclables. The team includes An-Tai
Kuo and Wu-Yung Huang, Ching-Chuan Hong, Ken-Chin
Hsu , Jen-Kui Wu — all local business owners
who have found time to do environmental volunteer
work.
It is Tuesday evening, and the trucks arrive at
Tsui-Yu Huang’s home on Yimin Road. Huang
and his wife use their garage to store all of
the collected recyclables from their neighbors.
This is the first stop tonight. More than ten
volunteers meet here, and under large yellow floodlights,
they help sort the recyclables before placing
them in the trucks.
Dali City is Taiwan’s 11th most densely-populated
city. As the population grows, so does the cost
of living in this rapidly developing metropolis.
The busy traffic makes it difficult to collect
recyclables. There are more than 30 Tzu Chi recycling
stops in the city. It takes commitment, enthusiasm
and diligence for Tzu Chi environmental volunteers
to ensure that all of the recycling stops are
organized and clean, and that recycling trucks
do not block traffic.
According to Hsu, the firefly convoy consists
of eight trucks, including two for paper, one
for metal, one for aluminum cans, and one for
plastic bottles. As the convoy collects recyclables
at each stop, drivers try to keep as close to
the side of the road as possible so that traffic
is not blocked. But if we have to temporarily
block traffic; our volunteers will stop what they’re
doing to help direct traffic. This is why all
of our volunteers ride scooters as well as drive
trucks so that we don’t cause any problems.
The evening team of Tzu Chi environmental volunteers
is known for their speed and efficiency. As soon
as they arrive at a recycling stop they quickly
put the bundled recycled materials onto the trucks.
They separate and flatten the rest of the materials
by hand, working both their hands and feet at
the same time. Once finished, they sweep the site
completely clean.
The greatest challenge for the volunteers is the
recycling stop at the open-air market on Chunghsing
Road. This is where restaurants from all over
the city dump their trash creating an enormous
amount of garbage, all of which need to be sorted.
Fortunately, there are enough trucks and volunteers
to tackle the task. It takes many pairs of hands
to quickly sort through aluminum cans, glass bottles,
different types of paper, as well as non-recyclables.
When they are finished at the market, the firefly
convoy finally reaches its last stop — the
recycling station.
Hsi-Pin Wu, who has helped with recycling both
in the morning and at night for the last two years,
says that Dali City’s evening environmental
volunteers include working professionals and local
business owners. Volunteers come with their sleeves
rolled and both hands ready to help. Their collective
effort has really made a noticeable impact in
the community.
Source: article from Tzu Chi Monthly No. 422 (Sept.
2003) by Po-Chou Chen
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