TAITUNG,TAIWAN - Media OutReach - 30 September 2020 - World Cleanup Day (WCD) is the global socialaction volunteer program held in coordination with LET'S DO IT! on the 3rdSaturday of every September to combat global waste. Since established inEstonia in 2008, WCD has collected over 100,000 tons of trash worldwide.

2020 World Cleanup Day - Let's Keep Taitung Beautiful

MagistrateApril Yao's core values of pure, good, and beauty have motivated Taitung CountyGovernment to participate in WCD since 2019. Taitung's aid in this year's eventdiffers from the previous because COVID 19 has greatly affected the island'seast coast's tourist population. The "Taiwan Model," hailed globallyfor successfully combating the pandemic, has allowed Taitung County to remainfree of the virus. While this influx of people flooding into Taitung hasbrought flourishing domestic tourism, it also caused many local businesses andpublic facilities alike to show signs of not appropriately coping with thedemands. Netizens have dubbed the phenomenon "retaliatorytourism."  

Todeal with the negative impacts the retaliatory tourism brings, Taitung ispromoting the concept of "responsible tourism" to raise publicawareness of environmental protection. Taitung County Environmental ProtectionBureau and the International Development and Planning Department led the"2020 World Cleanup Day Series, Keep Taitung Beautiful" event. All 16townships and municipalities partook in a series of cleanup events between 9/12-- 9/19, with local communities working in unison, including an underwater divecleanup on Green Island. This year's events collected 7424 kg of trash and2,479 kg of recycled waste. The 3,423 participants consisted of diverseorganizations ranging from all 91 Indigenous senior cultural health centers toa plethora of private and public groups such as Fushan Fisheries ResourcesConservation Committee, Lions Clubs, B&Bs and many more. It is a truetestament to Magistrate Yao's philosophy of "openness, integration &innovation" with everyone working together towards a common goal. 

Whilethe influx of post-pandemic tourism brought Taitung economic gains, it alsobrought excessive trash from visitors' overflow, negatively impacting thenatural ecology. It's crucial to educate Taitung's visitors to be"responsible tourists" in order to sustain a healthy ecology for allto enjoy. If everyone does their small part, certainly a big difference can bemade. Magistrate Yao hopes that Taitung can continue to serve as a positiveinspiration to ease all the pandemic's negativity. And one day, Taitung becomesa place where locals and visitors take ecological preservation seriously,allowing the counties' beauty to shine far into the future.