Volunteer Reflection - Day1

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.

Volunteer Reflection - Day1

This is Jiwon Bae's reflection of the trash-pick-up.

On April 19, 2013, a group of people went to the places around 7-Eleven and the opposite side of the school to pick up trash. We were split into 2 different groups; my teammates included Yejina, Cindy, Mini, Elly and Jaemin. We were each received with a bucket that we could dump in our trash, and every group member was assigned to pick up different categories of trash. The category that I was selected was ‘plastic,’ and it was my responsibility to go around the streets and see if there were any plastics that needed to be thrown away. There weren’t many big plastics that were sighted, but there were times when people left their bottles and threw it restlessly on the ground. As we walked around the stores, we could see more plastic cups being thrown; the streets looked better and clearer as we worked together to classify different kinds of trash. We only picked trash for 1 hour, but I felt a lot of different things afterwards. I thought that it was very important for all of us to contribute in spreading awareness about pollution so that we could all make the world a better place. There are many times when we throw trash without realizing, so we should always keep in mind of our actions and protect the world. I think picking up trash is a good idea for all of us to realize how we should make a difference for the safe environment. When the whole group gathered after 1 hour, we could see more than enough trash. What we picked was only a small proportion of the whole trash in the world, but it was fun after knowing that I have still contributed in making the world a better place. I think this service learning idea is a very nice project for everyone to come and join since it made me think back on the environment, how I needed to reflect back on myself, etc.

Hayoung's Reflection

This day was the first time to gather volunteers and do the actual trash-pick up. We planned to do it two times this week, however it did not go well. By the pouring rains we had to cancel our Thursday trash-pick up. Therefore, we decided everyone to go at Friday. Gathering volunteers was not that easy. Even we sent out e-mails, we did not get any replies, and we had to ask people personally, because doing it only with our team members does not meet our goal warning other people about the seriousness of trash disposal. By our effort, we pretty much gathered friends especially the 9th graders. They were willing to help us, which was very thankful. Before the working day we took roles who is going to send the e-mails and who is going to ask for equipments (tongs, plastic bags, small buckets to put trashes in). We successfully got the equipments on the day and all the volunteers were here. We told every member of the volunteers which type of trash (plastics, papers,  ) they are going to pick, because we need to analysis them. Then, to make it more efficiently, we divided in two groups first group going to left side of the school (sideways where Emily's Café is) and the other group went to the peninsula side. I was to find plastic bags, which I collected a lot. Everyone did a great job on it even it rained a little. Especially the Emily's Café group, they did collected a lot of disposed trashes. By gathering all the trashes, we found out that we had collected plastic bags, other plastic stuffs, and paper (mostly cigarettes) the most. I noticed that it might come out this way because there are many Chinese people eating stuff in plastic bags and they normally just trash them on the ground. Also there are many many people who smokes, that those people just dispose them on the ground because they think it is small and unimportant. For our next trash-pick up, we should check the weathers first; divide people with at least one member that is good at pushing other people to work hard; and setting the picking up place more precisely (it was a bit confusing where to stop). Lastly, I felt that the amount of trashes have decreased than last year, and I am very proud that Green Police had made it! And want to do better jobs later on. :)

Photos of our first "Trash Pickup"

We found out that the street got lot cleaner than last year!

Clean! ^^

Here's us!

But there still were some remaining trash on the street

We picked up the trash in different categories!

Plastic bags, glass, plastic, paper and others...

For others there were a lot of styrofoam, for plastic there were a lot of drink bottles and straws, for paper there were a lot of flyers, for glass there were a lot of beer bottles and remaining peaces of repairing glass of the houses.

Here's us!

plastic

Paper

Plastic bags/packages

Also Plastic 

others:)

The street after we cleaned up!

But as soon as we turned the corner.....

The sign even says not to put trash over here..

We put our trash in the trash can!