Mr Nguyen Dan from Quang Nam Province’s Dien Ban Town has worked as a volunteer trash collector on Da Nang’s Son Tra Peninsula over the past 3 years.

Mr Dan collecting trash along a road leading to the Son Tra Peninsula

His working day starts in the early morning and ends in the late afternoon. In the early morning, it takes the Quang Nam Province native around one hour to ride his motorcycle from Dien Ban Town to the Son Tra Peninsula to sell ice cream and collect trash.

In addition to an ice cream dipping box, Mr Dan equips himself with trash pickup tools and bags to prepare for regular trash collection.  

“I hope my action will help to make the Son Tra Peninsula cleaner and more beautiful, as well as raise the public awareness of environmental protection” the Quang Nam Province native said.

He often sells ice cream at some tourist-packed places on the peninsula, including the Linh Ung Son Tra Pagoda, over 800-year-old banyan tree in the Son Tra Nature Reserve, the Ban Co (Chessboard) Peak, and the Bai Bac tourist site. He explained the reason that these places are best places in the city to enjoy stunning panoramic views of the city from above, and shoot beautiful photos. As a result, these venues always receive a large number of visitors and more litter is found there.

“The Son Tra Peninsula has seen an increasing number of visitors in recent years, and I sell more ice creams than previous years. However, this tourist attraction cannot be kept in pristine and clean conditions as the original time” Mr Dan added.

The voluntary trash collector said “Every day, I spend between 5 and 6 hours on selling ice cream and I can earn about 300,000 VND. Meanwhile, the remaining time of the day is spent on collecting trash. Rubbish is usually left by mindless visitors and young people during their group trips to the nature reserve”.

A corner of the Son Tra Peninsula

The 55-year-old man collects over 10 kilos of garbage from roads leading to the tourist attractions on the peninsula with the majority of foam boxes, plastic water bottles, beer and soft drinks cans, and bubble tea plastic cups. After that, he classifies the collected rubbish and put them in public bins.

Mr Nguyen Duc Vu, the Head of the Management Board of the Son Tra Peninsula and Da Nang Tourism Beaches, spoke highly of Mr Dan’s meaningful action in making the peninsular cleaner and raising public awareness about environmental protection. He also encouraged local residents to become actively involved in clearing trash from the Son Tra Peninsula in a bid to make the tourist attraction cleaner and more beautiful.