The municipal cleaning crew in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪) has combined the district’s renown for spinning tops with recycling in a bid to teach children the importance of recycling and caring for the environment.
The crew said it collects pieces of wood sawn off during the construction of altar tables from various carpenters in the district and then sends them to a repair center established by the district’s Agricultural and Recreation Development Association and a local woodwork store, named San Ho, where they are then made into spinning tops, chopsticks or toothpicks.
The crew said it plans to visit elementary and junior-high schools in the district and that it would hold more than 15 spinning top coloring events and 10 do-it-yourself events for students to use recycled chopsticks to build items.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The spinning tops are to be used for recreational purposes, it added.
Dasi District, formerly Dasi Township, was established in 1834 and has since been renowned for its wood carvers. The artisans are known to have crafted spinning tops for their children to play with and taught them how to make their own tops.
Tsai Ming-chung (蔡銘忠), a volunteer at the repair center, showed the students who visited the center handicrafts, such as model houses, boats, pen containers or tissue boxes made from bamboo chopsticks or recycled toothpicks, in a bid to encourage them to make their own utensils instead of using disposable ones to cut down on waste materials.
The crew said students can bring used batteries to school and exchange them for recycled tissue paper or other daily necessities.
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