Taiwan college students don bikinis for beach cleanup campaign
Staff Reporter 2013-08-31 14:24
Cheng front left, and her team of volunteers. (Photo/Cheng Syun)
Cheng, right, and another volunteer pick up trash left on the beach. (Photo/Cheng Syun)
"Bending our waist is not just to show off our cleavage." Cheng, right, and another volunteer explain their mission. (Photo/Cheng Syun)
Cheng Syun, a student at Taipei's National Chengchi University, has spent her summer inviting other female volunteers to join her to don a bikini to clean up Taiwan's beaches, according to our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.
Earlier this summer, Cheng went to Liouciou, an island belong to Pingtung county in southern Taiwan, as part of a volunteer team from National Taiwan Ocean University in Keelung studying sea tortoises. Since the tortoises are nocturnal, she and the team whiled away the daytime picking up trash on the beach.
Cheng noted that most visitors to the beach were indifferent to the mess or unaware of her team's initial cleanup efforts. None of them were interested in lending a hand. Cheng then decided to ditch her T-shirt and jean shorts for a bikini to attract more attraction. The beach is known for its sunsets, so most visitors did not come wearing swimsuits at the end of the day.
Cheng said her bikini plan may not persuade people to join the cleanup immediately but they may remember her efforts to keep the beach clean when they visit other tourist attractions in the future.
The student was invited to share her experience at a forum held by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the office of Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cheng said she has taken part in various beach cleanups for years after she found discarded trash spoiling the beauty of many tourist attractions in Taiwan. She has also initiated a campaign to reduce the use of disposable utensils at her university and organized volunteers to clean up garbage left behind on Taipei's streets by people out celebrating New Year's Eve last year.
