20141221同心協力做環保Uniting People Together to Do Recycling
Every year, at the end of the year, I come to give everyone blessings because in few more days, we will be starting a new year. We should be grateful to one another. I am very grateful to all of you, recycling volunteers for giving of yourselves to do recycling and to protect the Earth with love. This is why I have to say “thank you” to you every day. I also want to give you my blessings. I wish you will all be safe and well every day so that you can do good deeds every day, be healthy and do recycling. This is something that I wish for and am grateful for every day.
Everyone, you should be grateful too. You should be grateful that you have passed through this year safe and well. We see that there are other people who share the same ideal as us in doing recycling to protect the environment. So many people have joined us, helping us, and doing recycling together with us. This makes us very happy and lets our days go by very quickly. This is something you should be grateful to each other for.
You all know that my favorite TV program is the “Guardians of the Land” about the recycling volunteers. It is through Da Ai TV that I get to see you and know how you do recycling. You are truly recycling bodhisattvas. You devote yourself to environmental protection with such sincerity and dedication. I can feel the love and support you have for me and if we put all that love together, we can help Da Ai TV.
Da Ai TV will take your stories and love and broadcast all to the world to show the world that Taiwan has so many people dedicated to recycling and that so many of you love and protect this Earth with your actions. So, now many countries in the world know that they can learn environmental protection and recycling by looking to Tzu Chi for examples.
This is very important because Taiwan is small and just us in Taiwan doing recycling will not be enough. So, we must set a good example and, through Da Ai TV broadcasting to the whole world, show people how to protect the environment.
Because of your hard work in recycling, all the unwanted and wasted resources are sorted carefully and precisely, with each type of material separated to be recycled efficiently. By selling the recycled materials and donating the proceeds, you support Da Ai TV. Also, the recycled PET bottles can be made into Tzu Chi blankets, which are given out as aid to help those in need.
So, recycling has many positive effects and most importantly, resources are not wasted so that we conserve resources, like petroleum, instead of continuously depleting them. It also saves the air from being polluted. Naturally, the greenhouse effect can be reduced. But, only Taiwan doing recycling is not enough. We need to show the world through Da Ai TV how we protect our planet and set an example for people around the world to follow.
This morning, Pingtung City local authorities, including the mayor and the executive secretary came to visit me. They said that they used to prefer for Tzu Chi not to do recycling in the communities because for the people who depend on the proceeds from salvaging recyclables, they used to worry that Tzu Chi would encroach on their livelihood.
“Tzu Chi Pingtung Office collects recyclables at fixed spots at fixed times starting from March 17, 2014. From April to Oct. 2013, in Pingtung City, the average person generated 0.98 kg of waste per day. Then, in the same period in 2014, the average waste per person was only 0.955 kg. for the same period in 2014, the recyclables that individuals sold back was 928.9 tonnes more than in 2013. These are recyclables brought in by waste-pickers as well as by households. Given the increase, it shows Tzu Chi’s recycling did not encroach on waste pickers’ livelihood.”
“Reducing waste is the direction of our recycling program. After we rolled out this program our daily waste volume has been reduced. In our city of 220,000 people, if one person reduces one kg of waste a month, this person can reduce 12 kg of waste a year. See how much waste we can reduce as a city in one year. Before, the city used to outsource its recycling operation. This outsourced vendor collected about 1,000 tonnes of recyclables a year.”
“The amount of recyclables collected by Tzu Chi volunteers at all of the recycling stations is a little over the total collected by the company we used to outsource to, for collecting recyclables with our garbage truck. That’s the first statistic. So, in response to people’s concern about whether Tzu Chi collecting recyclables with negatively impact those who collect recyclables for a living --- we need to also consider that the function of Tzu Chi’s recycling efforts is different from those who make a living out of it.
Because those who make a living of it, do it for income, they collect PET bottles or more valuable papers because they can sell for more money. They do it for financial reasons. However, when Tzu Chi collects recyclables, they do it to cherish goods and to protect the Earth. It is to protect our environment. They are not doing it for money so they don’t only focus on valuable recyclables. So, from the statistic, it shows that Tzu Chi is truly promoting environmental protection and awareness.”
What this means is that when Tzu Chi initiates this recycling program, it helps residents to foster a closer bond with one another and to gain knowledge about environmental protection. When it is time to collect the recyclables, every household not only knows to take out their recyclables, but they also sort the recyclables very well. Even the children and the elderly know how to sort the recyclables. This was what the local officials told me this morning.
So, everyone, I am very grateful to you. No matter which village or township you live in, you do recycling in your local community. I am very grateful to you.
Actually, we are doing this for Taiwan, for our society and for our local community. If we can do a successful job in recycling, we can keep good public sanitation. Good public sanitation, coupled with a successful recycling program, can firstly, serve as a good model for the world and, secondly, make the residents in our community healthier because the environment is more sanitary.
This morning, the mayor also said that while Kaohsiung recently grappled with a serious dengue fever outbreak, Pingtung did not have that problem. And truthfully, didn’t we see that Pingtung had no outbreak of dengue fever? It’s because of the good job done with recycling. That’s what the mayor said.
I am very grateful. It is my most sincere wish that Pingtung will be even better next year, and be free from disaster and disease, with everyone enjoying good health. The new year is approaching. Best wishes to you. May everything go well for you and may everyone be safe and well.Let us all pray with a very sincere, pious heart. We all have wishes for the new year. As we make our wishes, we have to be very earnest and pious.
With so many people gathered together here wishing each other well, we will be even more blessed. Let us furthermore pray for the world. We pray that this new year will be a good year with all enjoying peace, blessings and wisdom. May this next year be free of disaster, with everyone safe and well.I give you all my sincere well-wishes.
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