生活回歸 back to life

N,

All these news about the meticulous recycling and rubbish separation in Japan are actually not news to me.  It’s just that Hong Kong people are too accustomed to throwing away everything into the rubbish bin.  It’s just too convenient.
 
I remember last Sunday when we finished a hike in Sai Kung, we had drunk all our water but still were so thirsty that each of us bought a bottle of drink from a shop.  
 
With no recycling bins in sight but only one rubbish bin nearby, a fellow hiker asked, "What to do with the bottles?" Another fellow hiker replied, "What can you do? Just throw it away."  Taking as though it was a command, the rest of the folks instantly threw the bottles into the rubbish bin, without a second thought, nor paying attention to my trying to ask them to take the bottle with them until they find a recycling bin. 

All these bottles, wrongly verdicted as "rubbish", would ultimately be sent to the landfill in Cheung Kwun O, which is about to reach its full capacity in a few years (and the Government is planning to expand the landfill to Sai Kung). 

It’s so ironic that as soon we returned from a relaxing hike in Sai Kung, people rewarded the scenic sites with RUBBISH.  

It’s even more ironic that, me, who organized this hike, brought people to pollute a place I love so much.
 
Sigh.