World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ most important day of the year for promoting awareness and action to protect the environment. It began in 1974 and is a well-known global platform for positive change that is celebrated in over 100 countries. To echo the WED this year, PolyU hosted a series of activities that called upon the University community to reflect on our duty towards the environment. Being a part of the green activities on campus gives us an opportunity to share our ideas for making our world cleaner, greener, and brighter.
WED celebrations on PolyU campus were named under the theme ‘Live GREEN’ that communicated a self-explanatory and straight-forward message on what we should do for ourselves and our world. A Polyfoam collection exercise was staged with dedicated collection boxes in two campus canteens to collect Polystyrene (PS) and Polyethylene (PE) materials from the University community. These included common items such as fruits packaging, disposable food containers, and packing peanuts. The collected materials were sent to Missing Link - Polyfoam Recycling Scheme (迷失的寶藏: 發泡膠回收行動).
Another inspiring sharing was featured to bridge the University community to the magnificent world of forest and vegetation in Hong Kong. The invited speaker Dr Xoni Ma stunned the audience with information on where to find forests in Hong Kong, why we need to protect them, and how these gifts of nature constitute the habitat of the rich biodiversity in the city.
PolyU’s Live GREEN also brought a big reward to PolyU GreenCoin users. Those who performed green activities on campus such as practicing bring-your-own (BYO) food/beverage containers for takeaway meals at the Communal Student Canteen, or dropping clean plastic beverage bottles into the Reverse Vending Machine on 5 and 6 June 2019 would be taken by surprise with bonus Coins that affirmed their sustainable habits.
Live GREEN on PolyU campus means more than running events and publicity. It reinforced the concepts about adopting an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle. It set the stage to encourage us to curb our unsustainable habits and replace them with sustainable ones.
