"They said volunteers who pick up garbage are rubbish collectors!"

Recently, when China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) green field guardian volunteers’ team in Xiwangzhao were picking up the garbage in their hometown, someone asked their team leader Han Xiangbing: “Is it a shame to collect rubbish?”

Han said: In the past, people were poor and did not have a job, so they picked garbage. But now that people are wealthy, there are fewer people picking up waste products. The act of picking up waste products is instead an act of environmental protection, so what is shameful? In the words of Xiwangzhao green field guardian volunteers, environmental protection is not only to protect the biodiversity of the hometown, but also to protect the ecological environment of the hometown's green fields, rivers and mountains from pollution. Only by improving the ecological environment of human settlements and the ecological environment of the countryside can we gradually realize the improvement of the large ecological environment of the entire rural area, and the most basic and effective way is to reduce the pollution of waste.

"We farmers are closest to nature, our countryside is the closest to pollution. With no one to help us, we can only help ourselves."

"To put it bluntly, it starts with picking up garbage, which is in the same industry category as picking up rubbish."

“People used to look down on garbage collectors and thought they were shameful. But now garbage is everywhere, but no one picks them up. Is it social progress? Actually, the garbage collectors used to be doing environment protection.”

“Now that society has become civilized, it is called environmental protection to pick up the garbage. There are few people who engage in environmental protection, and many people throw garbage. Is it really that society has become civilized?”

Volunteers from the CBCGDF Xiwangzhao green field guardian team believe that it's not shameful to pick up the garbage, it's shameful to throw them.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF volunteers)

By / Maggie