to the Policies and Decrees

After many interviews, we got to know the work of the cleaning crew, understanding their real thoughts and finding out what they want in their hearts. Their greatest wish is, of course, to make our living environment more and more beautiful. In order to realize their aspirations, in addition to their own efforts, they also need the support of policies and decrees, as well as the cooperation of the public and the improvement of the welfare system.

Policies and decrees:

1. Implementing the fixed-point recovery system

Garbage is currently collected along the road in Luzhou. This is very convenient for the public, and they do not need to walk a long way because the garbage truck will drive to the vicinity of their homes. But this is a big challenge for Cleaning Squad and it often jeopardizes their own safety. The work of the cleaning crew is highly dangerous because they collect rubbish, kitchen waste, and various recycling items on the move from the public. In order to make the public enjoy more convenience, Cleaning Squad also drives the huge truck into the narrow lanes. Due to the illegal parking of vehicles, pot culture placed arbitrarily and all kinds of sundries placed randomly, vehicles are difficult to travel, so automobile accidents often occur. Sub-leaders mentioned that: “Every time the truck team sets off for duties, why the kitchen waste collector travels at first? Because the males are responsible for collecting the kitchen waste, and they are more energetic. When the truck is driven into the lanes, it is often blocked, and it is necessary to move the motorbike, so the kitchen waste collector must drive first to make the way.” “If the fixed-point recycling system is implemented, the public only needs to take a few more steps, but the burden of the cleaning crew is reduced and the safety of them will be more assured.”

“Although we are obviously compacting the rubbish, people still insist to throw the rubbish. We need to pay attention to whether the people will stretch out their hands or not. If people insist to throw the rubbish, we must press the stop button immediately. Otherwise, it is very dangerous. If they stretch out their hands, their hands may be cut by the machine.”

 “You have to pay attention to people’s safety of throwing rubbish, and you also need to assist the driver to notice the nearby traffic conditions. When the roadway is very narrow, you may need to help direct the traffic. Due to the illegal parking of vehicles, the truck may be crashed when the garbage truck drives into the alleys because they are very narrow in Luzhou.”

2. Increasing penalties

Why do we have a lot of rubbish every day in our living environment? Why do we have no way to stop rubbish? Beside the lack of quality among the people, Mr. Tsai believes that the most important reason is that penalties are too low. Singapore is very clean because they do not litter. People in Singapore do not litter because the punishment is so heavy that they fear to litter. Therefore, improving the equipment for banning and increasing penalties for violations are important measures to improve the environment, which is also what Cleaning Squad expects.

「“I hope the government can make all the laws and regulations stricter. For example, littering is now fined for NTD 3,000, and I hope littering can be fined for 10,000 in the future, then who will dare to litter?” The littering of cigarette butt is now fined for NTD 1,200 and I hope it to be fined for NTD 5,000 or more.”

3. Making up with new staff

The cleaning crew mentioned that many colleagues have retired in recent years, but there were no enough new recruits coming in, so staff will become fewer and fewer, while the workload will get heavier and heavier. Therefore, it needs the regular recruitment of new staff to make up the appropriate manpower, which is one of the main hopes of the grass-root cleaning crew.

“Now that the streets are built one by one, our work will continue to grow. Why? Due to there is no new staff come in to make up the retired personnel, the staff becomes fewer and fewer, but there are so many roads. Therefore, the workload of each of us will increase.”

4. Collecting a specific type of rubbish every day

Currently, Cleaning Squad's work is very heavy partly because we work too much for the convenience of the people. At present, people can dump all types of rubbish every day except Wednesday and Sunday. Due to there are many categories, it will be more complicated to deal with them, and the burden is naturally very heavy. If we change to collect only a specific type of rubbish every day, it is much easier to deal with them. For example, only the ordinary rubbish will be collected on Mondays, only paper will be collected on Tuesdays, and only the kitchen waste will be collected on Wednesdays, and so on. Mr. Tsai mentioned that Japan's waste sorting is very detailed, and only a specific type of rubbish could be dumped every day. Due to the high level of quality and the good cooperation of people, the number of cleaning crews in Japan is relatively small, but their environment is cleaner than us.

“At present, everything can be collected every day, but I hope only a specific type of rubbish could be collected on Mondays and another type of rubbish could be collected on Tuesdays. Therefore, there will not be so many types of rubbish being collected on the daily basis so as to reduce our burden.”