A dozen foreign diplomats and members of their family volunteered for recycling work that the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation organized in suburban Taipei yesterday.
At a recycling station in Neihu District (內湖), envoys from Taiwan’s diplomatic allies were shown how to use plastic bottles to make blankets, scarves and polo shirts. They then helped give the products a final touch, such as ironing labels onto the blankets, and packaged them.
Tzu Chi held the event to celebrate the upcoming Earth Day on Thursday.
The diplomats later spent an hour separating used plastic bags and taking apart discarded VHS tapes to pick out valuable components.
“We don’t call this ‘trash.’ We call it ‘gold’ that will turn into ‘love,’” a foundation member surnamed Wang (王) said.
However, she said, it is a pity that people think plastic bottles are easily recyclable, because large numbers of them are needed to make a blanket.
Njabuliso Gwebu, Swaziland’s ambassador to Taiwan, described the activity as “educational.”
“What Tzu Chi is doing is recycling and at the same time, they are helping the needy and poor people in the world,” Belize’s ambassador Efrain Novelo said. “Today is the time to save the Earth, not tomorrow.”
Tzu Chi has given away more than 250,000 such blankets to homeless people, poor people or disaster victims in 20 countries since the foundation unveiled the blanket in 2006. It takes 70 to 80 600cc plastic bottles to make a 230cm by 180cm blanket.
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