Interview with the Environmental Volunteer

Time of visit: October 12，2022

Site of visit: Tzu Chi Environmental Protection Education Center

Interviewee: Ms. Shu-Fang Chen

1.Why was “Wolong Environmental Protection Education Center” established at that time?

Answer:Wolong Environmental Protection Education Center, located in Daan District of Taipei City, was established on August 26, 2006. It is the Environmental Protection Education Center of Tzu Chi Foundation in Daan District, Taipei City. The purpose of establishment is to receive recycling resources from residents and companies in the community, implement recycling and classification, repair and provide recycled resources to residents for reuse, and provide environmental protection education courses and practices for school students in the community. Since its establishment, in addition to promoting the concept of environmental protection in the community, it has achieved many results in recycling, sorting, and reusing resources, reducing the amount of garbage, and promoting environmental protection education. It has also made environmental protection a part of community life, creating a better living environment and making joint efforts for the ecological environment of the earth.

2.What are the main items recycled at “Wolong Environmental Protection Education Center”？

Answer:We place 12 baskets in the Environmental Protection Education Center and guide the residents to sort them into 12 categories: PET bottles, plastic bottles, aluminum, iron, clothing, home appliances, paper, batteries, computers, stainless steel, plastic bags, and light bulbs for recycling. A number of environmental protection volunteers squat or sit on small benches to sort the mixed recycling items one by one, including a lot of garbage that cannot be recycled. 000 indicated that: after each large-scale environmental recycling, there will always be several large bags of garbage, including dirty and smelly kitchen waste, especially the smelly paper lunch boxes that were not cleaned, Styrofoam, old quilts and pillows, old leather suitcases, wine bottles, and other miscellaneous items, it always takes some time and special garbage bags to dispose of such non-recycling garbage. Therefore, there is a need to remind everyone to wash and clean recyclable resources before disposing of them.

3.How are the volunteers participating in the “Wolong Environmental Protection Education Center trained”?

Answer:Most of our environmental protection volunteers are voluntarily signed up by residents of the community. For volunteers who come to join us, we will provide gradual training to enable them to learn how to classify, disassemble, and organize recyclable resources. Volunteers will become extremely familiar with recycling after a period of training. Aunt Chen told us that there are more and more recyclable resources from science and technology products. For example, computer hosts have a lot of recyclable resources. If we dissemble a computer host, there are hard plastics, iron, stainless steel, wires, and other reusable items inside. In fact, the recycling rate can be increased. Wolong Environmental Protection Education Center has been established for more than 15 years. We are truly grateful for the dozens of environmental protection volunteers who have sacrificed their time and devoted themselves to maintaining the community environment and protecting the earth.

4.Where will the recycled items be sent in the end and how will they be processed?

Answer:Due to the limited space of the Environmental Protection Education Center, it is necessary to sort out the recyclables as soon as possible and request the environmental protection vehicles to carry the recyclables. For example, the environmental protection vehicles will send paper, plastic, and metal, the environmental protection site or the resource recovery site outside for processing, and the processed recycled items will be sent to the factory to re-manufacture the finished products.

5.Where do recycled items usually come from?

Answer:Environmental Protection Education Center recyclables are usually sent by community residents automatically. There are also a lot of recyclables and large-scale recyclables that the residents find it inconvenient to deliver them by themselves. We will drive environmental protection vehicles to pick them up. In addition, there are also some recycling sites in the community. As long as the recyclables are full, residents will call us and we will send volunteers to pick them up.

6.What is the most difficult part during the recycling and sorting of recyclables?

Answer:In the process of disassembly of recyclables, when volunteers encounter difficulties, they must have the spirit of overcoming them. They must continue to try and disassemble different electrical appliances and various items through exploration. After a long time, volunteers will become familiar with such a process and gradually accumulate experiences from failures. In particular, the recycling of home appliances and science and technology products has gradually increased, such as electrical appliances, computers, batteries, mobile phones, and electric toys where the structure is increasingly complicated. Our volunteers need to start researching how to disassemble these recycled items, such as disassembling iron sheets, knocking open electrical appliances full of screws, and disassembling wires. It takes time and effort to use some tools to disassemble and subdivide the recyclables and non-recyclables. We hope that most of the discarded items can be reused.

References: Shu-Fang ,Chen .Personal interview.October 12，2022.
Image Source:Photographed by the research team

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