This is Janie Kim's reflection of the trash-pick-up.
I went around Shekou to help pick up trash to research and collect data for the GIN project of the sophomores, and build a cleaner environment. This took place around Shekou, starting from Shekou International School and going towards Peninsula. We were divided into two groups- our group consisting of Hayoung, Julia, Yoon, Julie, and myself, and the other group consisting of Elly, Yejina, Jiwon, and Cindy. I have dedicated an hour for this project, and I have participated in that one time.
We started off for Peninsula, all of us ready for what we knew would be heaps of trash around Shekou, with the grimy streets and the litter strewn everywhere. We weren’t wrong. In fact, we were too right. There were mounds of mounds of trash, all around the place, and the funny part was that some people didn’t want us to take them, because they could use them to earn money- there weren’t any of the glass bottles or plastic bottles that we had anticipated- instead there was a staggering amount of cigarettes, food wastes, plastic bags, and bits of plastic and glass.
The first reaction I had to all those garbage was disgust. Whoever in the world would pollute the streets like this? Didn’t they know of recycling or throwing something in the trash bins? And what was with all those horrible food wastes that attracted cockroaches? And then it hit me. I was probably not one of those people who purposely threw trash all over the ground, but the trash I threw away was probably also disgusting for the people that saw it, and it was just that the trash I had threw away was in a different place where I couldn’t see it. I did feel a little bit of guilt as I saw all those popsicle sticks and plastic wrapper that were left over from the cracker packages. My thoughts were on those plastic islands that I had researched on during the last year, and I thought of all those plastic wrappers and bags that had once held the sweets that I ate. I realized that I was also contributing in the mess the earth was going in, and I couldn’t hold anyone responsible for all the dirt and grime that I was seeing.
And then there was the cigarette butts. I loathed even seeing them- there were snippets of them strewn all over the ground, in the bushes, in puddles of water, and there were ashes that were frustrating to look at and even more annoying to pick up. One thing was sure for the GIN group- cigarettes and smoking would be deeply involved in their analyzation of the trash pick up.
The GIN group is planning to hold another trash pick up, for further data for their project. Last time we focused on checking out the amount of each trash, and seeing what types of trash there were. I plan to go on the next trash pick up too.
