In many countries, people leave their trash in large bins on the street. In Taiwan, however, garbage trucks play music as they drive through neighborhoods every evening. When people hear the familiar tune, they rush outside with their bags of trash. Bottles, cans, and paper must be sorted and handed to a separate recycling truck. Because no refuse is left on the streets, this system keeps our surroundings clean and stops bad smells and insects. Thanks to these efforts, Taiwan now recycles more than half of its waste. Visitors are often amazed by this unusual daily routine.

Last Saturday, our English club joined a beach cleanup in New Taipei. We expected to pick up a few bottles, but what we found was shocking. In just two hours, the forty of us collected more than eighty bags of litter. Besides plastic bottles, there were old shoes, fishing nets, and even a broken chair that someone had dumped on the sand. Our teacher explained that sea turtles often eat plastic bags by mistake, thinking they are food. If this goes on, some sea animals may become extinct. On the bus home, we all promised to refuse plastic straws from now on.