Recently, the concept of ecological civilization has become increasingly popular throughout the country. Many villages want to become ecological villages, and many urban communities want to become ecological communities.

This era of national influx is a good time for public welfare environmental protection organizations and public welfare volunteers to contribute to the construction of ecological villages and ecological communities. China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) has observed a phenomenon in its work in recent years, that is, people who spontaneously participate in the construction of ecological villages and ecological communities are often excellent volunteers in the field of ecological environment. Some people even set up ecological and public welfare organizations with good development momentum. These acts, these achievements, let us admire very much. We are particularly willing to do our best to assist volunteers from all over the country who are willing to participate in the construction of ecological villages and ecological communities to do better.

In 2019, we saw the outstanding performance of Jiangxi Leping Green Light Volunteer Association in waste sorting. We cooperated with "Green Light" to set up a "sustainable recycling center". On the basis of this center, in 2020, we went one step further and established the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) Volunteer Support Center. We believe that the volunteer's own experience can fully drive more volunteers; the outcomes achieved by the volunteers can be radiated to all parts of the country, and more government departments and commercial institutions can be driven to jointly develop ecological villages and ecological communities.

Since 2019, China's garbage classification has entered a period of joint efforts by the whole nation and the whole society. Shanghai and Beijing have successively started garbage classification. Other provinces and cities across the country are also eager to try and are gradually launching a local garbage classification roadmap and implementation plan.

In comparison, civil society organizations and environmental protection volunteers have much earlier explorations on waste classification, and the experience gained is very rich. Some environmental protection organizations started advocating garbage classification in 1996. Some organizations have summarized relatively mature operating experience of garbage classification. Some organizations have been silently paying attention to various environmental risks caused by garbage that the entire society has not paid attention to. With the promotion of these public welfare and environmental protection organizations and environmental protection volunteers, many villages and communities have achieved gratifying outcomes of garbage classification. It is believed that these outcomes will have a lot of demonstration and leadership in the upcoming national waste sorting tide, with very good training and promotion value.

The level of waste disposal honestly reflects the ecological civilization level of a society. If one is not neat, it is not easy for others to trust. In a village, if even garbage sorting is not done, other environmental protection measures cannot be decent. In a community, if garbage classification cannot be promoted, other public welfare undertakings in the community will certainly be struggling. In a country or a society, if garbage is not handled properly, the foundation of the country’s ecological civilization is not reliable.

Therefore, in our opinion, garbage classification is the first step in the construction of an ecological village, and it is also a basic and critical step. In any place, to build an ecological civilization, the first thing to do is to properly dispose of garbage. Waste disposal is a technical issue, an economic issue, a device issue, and more often, it is a matter of management level and ideology.

Seeing the tide of government and commercial organizations participating in the garbage classification, some public welfare organizations and environmental protection volunteers feel pessimistic and feel that they have nothing to do. In fact, on the contrary, this era is the era of public welfare volunteers. Because government and commercial organizations have their limitations, and the public welfare characteristics of garbage classification, only public welfare environmental protection organizations and public welfare environmental protection volunteers can be easily integrated. We have studied that if there is no continuous involvement and participation of public welfare and environmental protection volunteers in a place, the waste sorting in this place must be walking through the field, or even faking or playing tricks.

Of course, the role of public welfare and environmental protection volunteers is also limited. To let more people become the leaders and practitioners of garbage classification, it is necessary for public welfare and environmental protection volunteers to share their own experience and wisdom, promote it, integrate it into other social experiences and wisdom, and transform it into more people act together. Let more people learn and refer, let more people apply, copy and share. Therefore, training and promotion activities are very important, very timely and very effective.

The CBCGDF Volunteer Support Center is actively collecting the nation's outstanding garbage sorting experience to summarize into an "effective action experience set"; More waste sorting experts are being connected to form a high-energy expert library; More training activities are being organized to drive more villages and communities to sort out garbage solidly and thoroughly.

(Photo source: Internet)

The author of this article is Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF).

Original Chinese article:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oPlCDQGmRnAkmGh1m0YQLQ

By / Maggie