Cat Gexian tries to sort out garbage bags (pictured on December 7, 2021). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Xiaochu
Hong Kong, 3 Jan (Xinhua) —
Question: Environmental protection warrior cat brother: “up the mountain and down the sea to hold garbage”
Xinhua News Agency reporter Lu Min
“Don’t call Mr. Sin, call me Brother Cat.” On the other end of the phone, Brother Cat laughed.
Cat brother loves cats and often adopts stray cats. At its peak, 11 cats were taken in, and now there are 8 in the house.
Cat Ge, whose real name is Sin Qiu, 58 years old this year, worked in the Fire Services Department of the Disciplined Forces of the Hong Kong SAR Government before retiring, and worked as an ambulance in an ambulance for more than 30 years.
On 26 April 2018, eight days after his retirement, he founded a social media volunteer group called “Picking Up Garbage” (Cantonese, meaning “picking up”), which by the end of 2021 had attracted more than 8,400 participants, carried out more than 3,000 operations in the countryside of Hong Kong, and removed more than 40,000 bags of garbage.
Netizens praised Brother Cat: “The first half of his life saves people, and the second half saves the earth.” In December last year, Brother Cat was selected by the media as one of the “2021 Moving Xiangjiang” figures.
Volunteers pick up garbage at the beach (pictured on December 7, 2021). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Xiaochu
“Bring your own duck and bring your own wine”
One day in early winter, at the entrance of Hong Kong’s East Bank Park, several volunteers waited early at the meeting point. The cat brother, who was carrying a camouflage backpack and carrying an oversized plastic bag in his hand, walked over and greeted everyone: “Start work!” ”
On the boulder-piled flood control embankment, volunteers split up and went down to clean up trash among the rugged boulders. Unexpectedly, there was really a lot of garbage in the stone crevices under the beautiful seawall. These places outside the scope of the cleaner’s work are remote and difficult to clean, which is where the cat brothers show their skills.
Volunteer Mr. Cui found a stable large rock and sat down, took out clamps, small shovels and other tools from his rucksack, and leaned over to pinch out beverage bottles, plastic foam and other debris from the stone crack. With his family moving overseas and living alone in Hong Kong, he joined the team of Mao Ge this year. “I’m 70 years old.” The old man said as he worked, “I want to do something meaningful.” ”
Ms. Liu is using scissors to cut the long nylon rope she picked up into sections, “too long to pack, garbage bags cannot be too full, too full for garbage station workers to handle.” She’s a park landscape architect who has been with the team for more than two years, and now she’s one of the group’s moderators and leads the team. “It’s nice to see the environment become beautiful.” She said.
How long does each activity take? Is there a quantitative indicator for picking up garbage?
“Nope.” “Our purpose is simple: to pick up trash and go home safely,” Cat said. ”
Brother Cat organizes country cleaning activities from time to time, and usually goes out three or four times a week, even if he is alone, he will still set off. “The weak can go to easy places, and if they can’t move, they can leave early.” Brother Cat’s idea is very simple, just don’t want everyone to think that environmental protection is painful. “Protecting the environment requires a long stream of water, and people must be willing to do it in order to do it for a long time. Even if a person picks up only one plastic bottle at a time, the harm to the environment will be reduced by one point! ”
The concept of “happy to do environmental protection” condenses more fellow travelers, and every trip is full of joy. In the group, they call themselves Cantonese homophonic memes such as “foolish and foolish”, “ants moving”, “their own duck (garbage) to bring their own wine (take away)”, “up the mountain and down the sea juice (holding beautiful) Hong Kong” and other Cantonese homophonic memes are everywhere, and in the atmosphere of love and fun, the number of volunteers has increased, from the initial twenty or thirty to more than 7,000 today.
The volunteer team poses for a group photo at the end of work (taken on December 7, 2021). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Xiaochu
National Day blessings
Cat brother loves outdoor sports, going up the mountain and down the sea, and his skin is tanned.
In 2017, Typhoon Hato hit Hong Kong, and after the storm, the seaside garbage in Saigon, where Brother Mao frequented, was everywhere. Brother Cat and his companions spontaneously helped clean the beach, and rowed a canoe to pick up the garbage floating on the nearby sea, and the neat beach was beautiful again.
If there were a few more people and a few more boats, wouldn’t it be possible to carry away some more garbage?
There are many people and great power, and Brother Cat founded a volunteer group, thinking that he could summon more enthusiastic people to act together.
Why pick up garbage?
“Garbage is made by people, it should be taken away by people, it is natural and righteous, it is as simple as that.” Brother Cat said.
Being happy and environmentally friendly doesn’t mean being easy. Brother Cat said that to remote mountains or islands, it is often necessary to walk for two or three hours to arrive, and the garbage collected is many and heavy, and it is difficult to take it down the mountain and transport it out to the sea after picking it up!
Cui’s deepest impression was an operation on the shores of Mars Cave last November, where he picked up nearly 400 bags of garbage that day, and how to transport it became a problem. Cui said the coast is separated from the road by a steep hill, “the slope is very steep, and it is all mud and gravel, it is difficult to climb up, let alone carry garbage.” Later, Brother Cat came up with a way to let everyone stand on the hillside one by one to form a human conveyor belt, passing it on hand to hand, and forced these garbage to be transported to the side of the road where garbage trucks could reach.
The garbage picked up is common household waste such as beverage bottles and cans, disposable plastic products, fishing nets, nylon ropes, plastic foam and other industrial waste, as well as old household appliances, etc., and the most outrageous is waste tires. “It is estimated that someone secretly threw waste tires into a ravine in order to avoid disposal costs.” Brother Cat said that once, the volunteer friends picked up tires scattered in the ravine one by one, and there were nearly 100 in one count.
Since the establishment of the team in 2018, every National Day cat brother will organize a cleaning operation. “I told my partners how nice it would be to give a clean environment to my motherland to wish her birthday!” Brother Cat said.
On National Day 2018, they went to Frying Fish Bay on Lantau Island to clean up 150 bags of marine debris after Typhoon Mangkhut. On National Day 2019, they went to Fenliu East Bay on Lantau Island to clean up 34 bags of garbage. On the National Day of 2020, 4 team members rowed out in canoes to clean up 20 bags of garbage in Ma Shi Chau. On the National Day of 2021, they received a “tip” from their teammates that several smuggling boats ran aground in Longguzhou, leaving a large amount of garbage, and the team immediately dispatched to clean up 1,012 bags of garbage in one go, setting a new record.
Stimulate positive energy for environmental protection
Every environmental protection action, Mao Ge will make records on social media, with pictures and texts, recording the pollution threat of nature, hoping to attract more people’s attention.
Brother Cat leaned over and took out a handful of loose pieces from the stone crevice: “Look, these are non-degradable plastic particles.” “Plastic particles entering seawater can poison fish and threaten human health through the food chain. He said that people always want to leave wealth to their children and grandchildren, but they do not know that the best legacy is nature, and protecting the environment is the real benefit for future generations.
Every time “starts”, the first thing Mao Ge does is to hang the team sign in a conspicuous place, with two lines of words “up the mountain and down the sea to take garbage and protect the earth everyone has the responsibility”, next to their QR code, “the first let people know that we are an organized volunteer team, and the second hopes that more people will scan the code to join”.
“Before the movie starts, take time to pick up garbage” “On the way to watch the sunset, I saw garbage on the hillside, and I couldn’t help but shoot” “The lone ranger set off” … More and more citizens spontaneously joined Mao Ge’s environmental protection team, some laundry companies donated laundry bags for garbage free of charge, and some small shops took the initiative to lend small carts to transport garbage to them, inspiring a full of positive energy for environmental protection.
“At present, there are many people in the team who bring their children to do environmental protection, which is both parent-child activities and environmental protection education, and parents are highly motivated.” Brother Cat said.
One day in late May last year, when the temperature exceeded 36 degrees Celsius, four children formed a “Caring Team” and braved the scorching heat to clean up garbage in Shuikou Bay, Lantau Island. It is an important breeding area for marine life in Hong Kong, and it is home to valuable marine species. Under the scorching sun, the team members were fully armed, wearing sun hats, gloves, rubber boots and iron tongs, and walked through the mangrove forest to collect 58 bags of garbage.
After the “battle”, the four young soldiers took a group photo according to the team’s usual practice – with their backs to the camera, raised to the sky with one hand, surrounded by bags of neatly placed garbage.
“At the end of every action, we take a group photo like this, which means, people are doing, the sky is watching, nature is our home, we must take good care of her!” Brother Cat said.
Volunteers pick up garbage at the beach (pictured on December 7, 2021). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Xiaochu
Volunteers pick up garbage at the beach (pictured on December 7, 2021). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Xiaochu