Good morning dear fellow schoolmates and teachers,
It’s my pleasure to share my experience working as an assistant for the Going Green Centre during this summer. Although the work there was tough indeed, the experience I’ve gained is very memorable and distinct in my secondary school life.
My intimate friends and teacher shall know that I have been sensitive to green issues — not because I am genuinely environmentally friendly, but my indigenous affection to the nature. Every time when I hear about news related to Hongkongers’ lack of the sense of conservation, the warning bell of the near-saturated landfill, I’ll feel very desperate as I can’t understand why our fellow citizenscan be so ignorant about the consequence– the skyrocketing rate of global warming. Thus, honestly, I was not excited when I received the news that I had got a chance to work for Going Green Centre, which is an organization launching a very large scale recycling scheme in some public housing estates in Hong Kong. I thought it was impossible to make any changes to people’s life as long as they were still insensitive to the gloomy situation.
Ironically, the situation always gets a U-turn at the most unexpected moment. On the first day of my practice, I was told to conduct a regular check to record at what level the recycling bins were utilized. Having the perception that the degree of utilization would be low, I was pessimistic. I simply thought it was a waste of time doing the job.However, just at the moment when my senior and I stepped out of the office, a little girl in white school uniform carrying some used paper packages of drinks and empty cans of cola stood before us. It seemed that she wanted to ask us a question and looked a bit embarrassed. “Where are the recycling bins? I want to have them recycled,” she spoke in a soft voice. Can you imagine how I felt at that moment? I was immensely overjoyed, and immediately helped her carry some of the cans and went back to the block of building she lived in. We showed her the recycling bins,which were actually located at the lobby of the block next to the mailbox. I felt more encouraged when the little girl told me that she had washed the cans thoroughly before, making the procedure of recycling easier and less costly. The excitement remained for the rest of my practice.
Not only did the experience ignite my enthusiasm working at the centre, but it reminded me of the key to the success of the regular recycling scheme — our children. It is our children, who construct the future society. The importance of recycling must be instilled in them when they are young, so that they can make it their habit of a lifetime by years of practice.
What can be done to promote recycling? I think that the current measures are far from enough to leada successful recycling campaign. Publishing advertisements, broadcasting TV commercials and other means of media are not quite effective in encouraging Hongkongers, including the young generation, to develop the habit of recycling. I think what the government could do now is to increase the subsidies for NGOs like Going Green Centre to employ more resources to implement recycling schemes on a rewardbasis to further raise the incentive of the residents to supportrecycling more.
Everyone, let’s not look down upon the efforts that an individual can pay. Alittle step of ours signifies a great step of the whole city. Let’s join hands to promote recycling.