The world of Tzu Chi September 2020 (Vol.126)

TZU CHI 126 13 Looking back On August 23, 1990, Master Cheng Yen chanced upon a road littered with rubbish and could not bear witnessing such a mess. She appealed to the audience at the end of a speech at the Shin Min Commercial & Industrial Vocational High School in Taichung for everyone to work together to reclaim their homes and environment. She hoped that when everyone returned home, they would use their hands for clapping to sort their rubbish and get into recycling. “Use the hands that are for clapping to do recycling” became Tzu Chi’s recycling slogan. As of 2019, Tzu Chi has 110,000 volunteers involved in recycling across 19 countries worldwide, and over 10,000 recycling centres and points. Malaysia is second only to Taiwan with 154 recycling centres and 876 points. A recycling point does not have a storage space for recyclables. It is usually set up along roadsides in residential areas for the convenient of the residents where they have the opportunity to gather and sort the recyclables as well as learn about recycling. In the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor regions, the recycling points operate on the third Sunday of every month, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. A recycling centre, on the other hand, is a physical location with storage facilities to store recyclables. Open to the community, the centre also serves as a place to learn about Tzu Chi, the reason for recycling as well as for the community to participate voluntarily in the recycling effort. Weekly sorting of recyclables is open to the community, with the time slot left to the availability of the community. Recycling point vs recycling centre Tzu Chi’s Three Decades of Recycling