Despite repeated announcements by Taoyuan City Government’s Department of Environmental Protection that its environmental maintenance workers “only collect trash, not red envelopes,” a lot of people still sought to show their gratitude during the Lunar New Year period by stuffing red envelopes into the garbage trucks and then hurrying away, making it hard for the environmental maintenance workers, busy with their cleaning work, to return the gifts before the donors ran off. The department’s response to this problem was to turn the public’s gesture into an act of true kindness by donating all of the more than NT$165,000 it received in red envelopes to the Taoyuan City Government’s social assistance fund account, thus allowing the public’s kindness to reach more families in need of practical help.
With a COVID-19 cluster on its doorstep, the department was kept busy disinfecting densely populated areas and public spaces all over the city at the same time as removing the clutter discarded by every household in their pre-Lunar New Year cleanouts. This greatly increased the volume of garbage collection work for the city’s thousand-strong environmental maintenance workers, who had to working non-stop right up to the evening of Lunar New Year’s Eve, when they finally got off work and went home for dinner with their families. Early in the morning of the fifth day of the first lunar month, the environmental maintenance workers were at it again, starting work earlier than usual, some of them busily sprucing up the townscape and carting garbage away, while others rushed off to every schoolyard to carry out disease prevention disinfection before the start of the new semester.
Lo Wen-lin, Director of Taoyuan City Government’s Environmental Maintenance and Inspection Division, said that although the public’s gestures of gratitude brought warmth to the environmental maintenance workers amid the year’s end winter cold, public servants must abide by the clean government ethical guidelines for Taoyuan City Government employees, according to which they cannot accept gifts. The red envelopes and gifts received by the environmental maintenance workers were therefore all handed over to the Governmental Ethics Office for unitary registration of all the gift refusals. During this year’s Lunar New Year period, the division received a total of over NT$165,000 in red envelopes, all of which it handed over as donations. However, some of the environmental maintenance workers trash collectors said with a smile that this year people giving them red envelopes, being worried about the pandemic situation, avoided direct contact with the trash collectors by quickly placing their gift boxes and red envelopes on the drivers’ seats of the garbage trucks. Nonetheless, the quantity of gifts had actually increased considerably, showing that people are being even more generous than usual.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan City Government Department of Environmental Protection 照片：桃園市政府環境保護局提供
(Translated by Julian Clegg, Taipei Times)
桃園市政府環境保護局雖一再宣導，清潔隊員「只收垃圾，不收紅包」，但過年期間仍有不少民眾為了表達謝意，塞了紅包就快閃，也讓忙於清運的清潔隊員無法及時退還。環保局對此將民眾心意化為大愛，將今年春節收到逾十六萬五千餘元紅包，全數捐給桃園市政府社會救助金專戶，讓實質愛心幫助更多需要的家庭。
武漢肺炎（新冠病毒，COVID-19）當前，桃園市政府環境清潔稽查大隊不僅年前忙著全市各區人口密集區及生活圈大消毒，還要忙著家家戶戶年終大掃除後所清出的垃圾，讓千名清潔隊員收運工作量遽增，片刻不停，直到除夕晚上才收班返家圍爐；而初五一大早，清潔隊也提前開工，一邊忙著市容整理及垃圾清運，一邊還要趕在開學前，到所有校園內進行防疫消毒。
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan City Government Department of Environmental Protection 照片：桃園市政府環境保護局提供
桃園市環境清潔稽查大隊長羅文林表示，民眾的感謝雖為隊員於歲末寒冬增添暖意，但公務員仍須依照「桃園市政府員工廉政倫理規範」，無法收受餽贈，而清潔隊收到的紅包、禮品全數交由政風室統一辦理拒收饋贈登錄事宜，今年過年期間共收到紅包十六萬五千餘元，對此全數捐出。不過隊員們也笑稱，今年民眾送紅包都有防疫考量，避免接觸隊員，將禮盒跟紅包迅速放進清潔車駕駛座內，數量反而明顯大增，足見市民熱情有增無減。
(自由時報)
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