Recycling Red Pockets
By Jessie Un


The first campaign to recycle red pockets ended successfully on February 25 as Instituto Para os Assuntos Civicos e Municipais (IACM) announced that through this program 526,850 red pockets were collected for recycling.

IACM organized the "Red Pocket Recycling Program" right after the Chinese New Year to improve the green awareness and encourage the public participation in the waste recycling. During the holiday, many people received a lot of lucky money while throwing away a pile of red pockets. Through this program, the public can not only inherit the culture of the Chinese New Year, but also protect the environment to ensure that used red pockets would not add up to the municipal solid waste.

Municipal waste is a common problem in every developing or developed country. It accumulates while our city's economy grows. The city waste has reached the maximum capacity of incineration--320,000 tons that the Incineration Center can handle per day, so the public demands an immediate attention to the city's waste problem.

To participate in the program was very simple. People just needed to write their name and telephone numbers on their red pockets and drop them into the red pocket collection boxes of IACM or hand them over to associations or schools, which joined the "Red Pocket Recycling Program". There was no limit on the number of red pockets a person could enter in the lottery. They would have more chance to draw a prize if they put more red pockets in the collection box.

The officers of IACM gathered in the IACM hall at 5 o' clock on February 25 for the lucky draw. They had to use a big spade to mix the pile of red pockets before they drew the winning pockets (lottery). In this campaign, 50 lottery winners were announced, who received such prizes as a digital camera, MP3 or DVD player.

Cheong So Mui, vice-chairman of the Affairs Commission of IACM, expressed that the most important thing is that the campaign made all the public realize the proper way to dispose of municipal waste.

Amy Cheong, a Year 4 student, joined this program through the school. Cheong said that the main reason that attracted her to this program was that she might draw a prize. On the other hand, this program also made her pay more attention to the waste problem. She said that she would recycle her red pockets in the next Chinese New Year without any prizes if she just needs to collect red pockets and put them in the recycling box to protect the environment.

Top