Busy couple in Nghe An

Garbage “map”

At 2 pm on a weekend in December 2019, Mr. Ho Phi Quyet (resident of Hamlet 10, Quynh Loc Commune, Hoang Mai Town) was busy preparing his tools and taking his wife and two young children to their grandparents' house. After dropping off their children, Mr. Quyet and his wife rode their motorbikes to places with a lot of trash to do their usual job for over a year now, which is picking up trash. The place where they picked up trash this afternoon was in front of the primary school gate and the market.

“This is an area with a lot of garbage, especially plastic bags and waste. My wife and I pick up trash here almost every week, but we still can’t keep up,” said Quyet, who was quickly picking up trash and putting it in a bag.

For over a year, Quyet and his wife have been picking up trash to clean up the environment. Photo: PB

As Mr. Quyet said, in Quynh Loc commune, there is no place with garbage that he does not know. So much so that in his mind, there is a map of the garbage sites in Quynh Loc. “Every day, during my life as well as on the way to work, I will observe places with a lot of garbage. On weekends, my wife and I go to clean up, prioritizing the places with a lot of garbage to clean up first,” Mr. Quyet said, adding that, with an area of ​​more than 13km of road like Quynh Loc commune, cleaning up all the garbage in a few days is impossible. Moreover, cleaning up today can cause the street to be full of garbage again tomorrow, because not everyone is conscious of maintaining public hygiene and knows how to put garbage in bags.

In just 30 minutes, the bag of snake carcasses that Mr. Quyet and his wife took away was full of trash. Mr. Quyet tied it up carefully, gathered it on the side of the road to wait for the environmental workers to come and collect it, then continued to collect trash into another bag.

Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, Mr. Quyet takes the time to pick up trash to clean up the environment. Photo: PB

In Quynh Loc commune, according to the schedule, environmental workers only collect trash once a week, which is on Monday morning. Therefore, all week long, trash accumulates on the village roads and alleys. Many families have learned to care and collect trash in bags, but there are still households that litter. "There are days when strong winds blow balloons all over the road, and seeing that scene is very unpleasant to the eyes," said Mr. Quyet.

Sitting next to her husband, smiling, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai said that she and her husband were also somewhat unlucky when their second child was born with congenital epidermolysis bullosa. For more than 6 years, they have been running around everywhere hoping to have money to treat their child. During that process, they also received attention, encouragement, and help from many people, so they fully understood the meaning of volunteer work.

“Seeing my husband picking up trash, I supported him and was very happy because his actions would make this society better. At first, I had to stay home to look after the children, but later I thought, if he did it alone, when would the trash be gone? So I decided to send the children to my grandparents to pick up trash with him.”

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai

Want to get out of work

Mr. Quyet and his wife started collecting trash in September 2018. Before that, Mr. Quyet joined the Hoang Mai Loving Arms Club. In addition to helping disadvantaged and single-parent families, the club also cooperates with schools to collect trash on beaches and roads.

“But the club cannot always operate, while the amount of trash increases day by day. From then on, I decided to pick up trash to contribute to making the environment cleaner,” Quyet explained his actions.

Mr. Quyet and his wife prioritize picking up plastic bags and plastic waste first. Photo: PB

Due to the nature of his job, Mr. Quyet often takes advantage of Saturday and Sunday afternoons to pick up trash. The image of the couple holding a bag in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other, diligently picking up everything from plastic bags to plastic bottles on the side of the road, in ditches, in bushes, and then putting them into the bag surprised many people.

Some people even told him that only those who were idle, unmotivated, and nosy would do other people's business like that. Then some people even asked if he and his wife had ever picked up trash, which made him feel sad.

“I do it because I feel happy and my actions are useful to the community and society. When I see trash on the street, I feel uncomfortable, I just want to pick it up and put it in a bag.”

Mr. Ho Phi Quyet

At first, Quyet and his wife quietly picked up trash, so not many people knew the meaning of this action. But then he thought, he had to try to spread this action to raise awareness of environmental protection, and if possible, they would join in picking up trash. So while picking up trash, he used his phone to take pictures and posted them on Facebook. And from there, many people understood and directly joined in picking up trash with him and his wife.

If anyone has the opportunity to visit Quynh Loc commune and walk along the streets, they will see a different image, that is, there are almost no plastic bags and plastic waste on the streets like before. Looking at the image of Mr. Quyet and his wife picking up trash for free, we can understand that although life is still difficult, if each person is conscious and has a heart towards the community, there will be good actions.

Mr. Quyet and his wife with their second child with congenital epidermolysis bullosa. Photo: PB

Mr. Quyet hopes that one day in the near future, he and his wife will no longer have to pick up trash. At that time, people's awareness of environmental protection will be raised, and there will be no more littering along the road, especially nylon bags and plastic waste.