Volunteer at Klang Tzu Chi Recycling Centre - Day 6

On the 15th of May, we gathered again at Klang's Tzu Chi Recycling Center at 10 a.m. When we arrive, the center have already started to operate as usual. Everyone were in their work station accordingly doing their own part. After a short greeting, we continue our work from the day before which is  to sort out various bags of recyclable items from a few trolleys. The trolleys is filled with recyclable items all day long by the residents that live in that area. When a bag is full, it will be move to its classified area that we were taught to by the seniors. 

After a while of sorting, a truck arrived at the gate of the center. The truck was filled with two refrigerator, lots of plastic bags and bamboo stick. We were assigned to unload the truck as we were more suitable for these tasks compare to the elderly. The elderly were relived that we were there that day because it would be troublesome for them to unload the items on that truck. The bamboo sticks were to be carried to the second floor of the center and placed in the meeting hall while the refrigerators were to be moved to electronic stations to be repair or give away. 

A moment later, a second truck arrived. They are here to collect glasses which were sorted a while back to be recycle. They came with their workers so we din't have to handle the moving ourselves. 

At 12 p.m, everyone was called in to take their lunch prepared by the kitchen worker. Before the meal, the center have a tradition of singing a few song related to gratitude, environment and etc. we had fried rice and sweet potato soup.  

Next, we headed back to our work station which was to assemble cardboard and stack them up neatly. As we carried out our service, we heard stories about the members in the center there and how the service community helped them in life. There were one member that hold a degree in engineering but had an terrible accident on his job that causes him to be slight paralysis. He joined the center which allowed him to opened up and interact more with the community. Some of them were poor that they only had egg and rich for their meal. After all those stories, we realized how lucky we were and we should be grateful for it. 

Before leaving, we took pictures with the members of the recycling center to keep our memories. Lastly, we showed our regards and gratefulness before parting away. 

Volunteer at Klang Tzu Chi Recycling Centre - Day 5

On the 14th of May, we arrive Klang’s Tzu Chi Recycling Centre at 10 a.m. It is a large recycling centre compare to SS3 one. We meet Ms Chen, the senior Tzu Chi staff in this recycling centre at the front door. Ms Chen is a very enthusiastic person, she invited us to have breakfast with them before work.

After having a simple breakfast, Ms Chen leaded us look around and introduced on how this recycling centre operated. She also explained the classification method of recycling items with us. Although we already know how to classify the items as we do recycle in SS3 before, we still listen to her speech carefully. Later, we found the way of them handling aluminium cans are different from previous recycling centre. In SS3, they told us to flatten the aluminium cans to save more space. But in this recycling centre they don’t flatten the aluminium cans because the recycling factory asked them to send the cans without flattened to let the new machines handle aluminium cans more efficiently.

We sort out recyclable items from the trolley. 

Every day, people around this area will bring recyclable items to here and put things into the trolleys. There are several trolleys put in the front door, our job is to sort out those items by categories from the trolleys. Before starting out the sorting, Ms Chen bring out several linen bags and plastic bags for a clearer classify the categorize of each item according to their type. Then we start to sort out various bags of recyclable items from one of the trolley. When a bag is full, we move it to the classified area base on its type.

Han Shen sorting paper product into different category.

While we are sorting recyclable items, Han Shen was called to help other people. There are one room for storing all paper products in this recycling centre. Han Shen was called to that place to help on sorting paper made into different category.

At 12 p.m, we have lunch together with them. Due to Tzu Chi have related to Buddhism, the meals they provide are vegetarian. The meals are cooked in the kitchen and the dishes are put on a long table. Everyone line up to take the amount they want to eat.

After lunch, we continue our work. While we are sorting recyclable items, there are some residents who lived around here bring the stuff from their home. Some of them are recyclable items, and some are things that can be sell as second-hand goods. Whenever we found something that are still new or can be reused, we will send it to upstairs, and place it in the shop. The shop are selling those goods to people in need at a cheap price.

The shop on 2nd Floor

During this time, we found out some of the volunteers are people with disabilities. There is an uncle who looks 50 years old. Although his left arm is disabled and some of his actions are inconvenient, he still helps others to weigh heavy things with his strong right arm. He is a role model for us to learn, he has to work harder than we do to achieve results. We must learn his spirit of perseverance and self-improvement.

At the end of the day, bought some pizza to reward everyone for the hard working. After we finished eating, we cleaned up the dishes and ready to go back. Before leaving, we leave our impression in the visitor feedback book.

Klang Tzu Chi Recycling Centre’s
 visitor feedback book.

Content we write in the book.

Volunteer at SS3 Tzu Chi Recycling Centre - Day 4

This is the last time we are going to Tzu Chi Recycling Center located at SS3. At around 8:30 a.m., we reached the center and start to sort out various bags of recyclable items that are given to the center by nearby neighbors and also from various recycling points. Before starting out the sorting, we bring out the baskets from the storeroom and arrange them so that we could categorize each item according to their type as what we have done in the past few Saturdays. If we have found that some of the items need to be flatten, we then use the special device to crush the materials

Starting to sort the recycling items

Sorting the items

Using the flattening machine to crush the metal box

Team work: some are flattening the metal items while others categorize the items

Other than that, we also stack up the cardboard and tie each stack together. This is done so that when we need to sell them, we could easily take the stack out from the storeroom again rather than taking one by one. It also saves spaces, allowing more cardboard to be placed inside the storeroom.

Folding and stacking up the cardboards

As there were quite a number of items to be sorted. We worked for around 4 hours. At around 12 p.m., we finally finished our work. As a token to appreciation and also leaving memories, we took a group photo together with the members of the recycling center. Although it is the last day that we will be helping out as community service, we will always remember about the helpful advice that we received form our beloved Tzu Chi seniors working in the recycling center. We thank Tzu Chi SS3 Recycling Center for providing a chance to experience and understand about the importance of recycling activity.

Volunteer at SS3 Tzu Chi Recycling Centre - Day 2

On April 28, 2018, the second day of our community service at Tzu Chi SS3 recycling center. As usual, we gathered at Sunway campus as some of us are carpooling to the recycling center.

We left the campus around 8.20 and arrived slightly late as we could not predict the traffic at that time. As soon as we arrived, only one senior can be seen. She was in charge of the center opening on that day. After a short greetings upon our arrival, we headed to check on the new item that were brought in for the current week.

The storage room seem somehow empty because of  last week's clearance. On that day, we have had the opportunity to see how different kinds of recyclable item were organized, how they should be handled and how they were to be tidy up for storing. 

First of all, we brought out stools and baskets from the center and arranged them in the yard. They are for sorting purposes as we have large group of people coming in later. After that, we started to open bags and boxes that were filled with recyclable items. Most of the items found were untidy, everything were mixed together, product's leftover could be found and the smells was just bad. Some of them even had incest crawling all over it. Even when the item were stuffed nicely and all, we still had to rearranged because they were sorted out wrongly.

So here come the most important job that is to sort out all those item, organize them, packed them up and store them away until the next storage clearance take place. As we were occupied with our service, more and more member of the community showed up.

After awhile of sorting, Ms.Yeoh made a phone call and found out that the company in charge of cartons will not be making trips to collect cartons that day. So they decided to clear out a store room in the yard to store those cartons.

Next, two of our member were guided by a senior to clear out the store room while the others were in charge of tying bags filled with cartons into pairs. The store room were filled with old stuffs and tools that they had to decide whether which will stay or go. Some of them were gardening tools, cleaning acid and old cloths.

When the store room was cleared, the carton bags were then transferred into it. We managed to stored up half of the room with the amount of the cartons we handled. The room was also being cleaned up before we carries items in. That pretty much sum up of what we had done on day 2.

Our service went smoothly as many of the member of the community showed up on that day. We could seek guidance from everyone of them when we were confused during our service. During the process, there were a resident who came to seek for usable item o be repair or reuse. Tzu Chi center were kind enough to gave away their item without charging him even though the items he requested for may cost a lot.

Finally, we tidy up the place, cleaned ourselves up and get ready for lunch. They had prepared big portions of food as they knew we will be attending this weeks service. We were tired but satisfied at the same time. 

Volunteer at SS3 Tzu Chi Recycling Centre - Day 3

Report on community service - Day 3

Introduction

On the 5th of May, we went to Tzu Chi SS3 Recycling center to help out for community service. Like the past 2 volunteer sessions, we started work at 8.30am.

Picture of us helping out the recycling center
Photographer: Wei Liang

Giving out old clothes

Firstly, we weigh the old clothes sent to the recycling center, before moving them to the truck to be given to the needy.

The multitude of old clothes sent to the recycling center

Moving the old clothes to the truck to be given to the needy

Sending unwanted electronic wastes for recycling

Besides, we also pack and weigh the electronic wastes sent to the recycling center. These electronic wastes can be sold for money, despite being unusable. The PCB (printed circuit board) of those electronic devices may contain trace amount of gold, which can be collected and be reused on the production of new PCB in new electronic devices. These electronic wastes are also sent to the truck to be sent for further processing.

Crushing aluminium cans

We somehow split up and provide help in processing different types of waste. As for Zheng Hong and me, we dealt with aluminium cans for the bulk of our time here. We crushed the cans into flat sheet of aluminium using the recycle center's DIY can crusher, made out of recycled metals.

We split up and help out in different tasks

The main motivation for crushing the aluminium cans is such that it occupy less space in the recycling center. This also helps when we send these cans out for further processing in trucks - the truck can carry more aluminium cans at once, reducing the number of trips required. The same logic also applies for plastic bottles, especially those soft drinks and mineral water bottles under the "P1" category.

Demonstration from the staff worker

Zheng Hong crushing the cans

Sorting paper and plastic wastes

While Zheng Hong and me are taking turns crushing the aluminium cans (it is a physically taxing task), the rest of our team are occupied with sorting plastic wastes, crushing plastic bottles, and sorting papers.

Sorting paper wastes

The motivation to sort plastic wastes is the fact that the manifold types of plastics undergo different process in recycling, for they are made up from different polymers. Although our effort in sorting plastics may seem insignificant, but it is in fact, part of the global effort for environmental preservation. We need to reduce plastic pollution in our earth, because the vast majority of plastic is non-biodegradable. Irresponsible disposal of plastic wastes will greatly harm our environment. For example, there are many cases where sea turtles mistook plastic bags as their food - jellyfish. By eating them, many of them are intoxicated or even died from it. It's mind-blowing to see that by our effort, we are actually saving the world.

Job done

At about 12pm, we left the recycling center, having completed all the recycling work of the recycling center for the week. As for our team, we all felt a sense of accomplishment despite being physically exhausted, as what we did on that day is very meaningful.

We have finished the sorting of various wastes

Job done - keeping the cardboard boxes for future use

What have I learnt from this volunteering session

As for me, 1 major takeaway from this session is summarized in 1 word: humble. As typical millennial, we often have an unhealthy sense of entitlement, and also a "I'm too cool for this" attitude towards lowly job - such as sorting wastes.

Every job in the society, except for crimes, are important, as the advancement our society depends on everyone playing their role well. Without recycling and waste management, our environment will be littered with wastes, and such poor hygiene will encourage the breeding of pests such as rats and flies, which may lead to epidemics. So, we see that this is an important job too.


Finally, I hope that people are more responsible in waste disposal, otherwise it will be very unloving towards recycling workers and volunteers. They should have separated their recyclable wastes and non-recyclable wastes properly before sending them to recycling centers. There was an occasion where I opened up a bag of paper wastes, and the first thing that comes to my sight are disgusting tissue papers and used sanitary napkin. It is indeed a test to me, as I need to pick these objects out, throwing them into the garbage bin, and continue sorting the rest of the recyclable paper wastes in the bag.