After every competition night of fireworks, hundreds of young people diligently went around street corners to collect pieces of garbage to ensure local green, clean and beautiful landscape. These volunteers are members of the Da Nang Garbage Lovers’ Association.

Young members of the Da Nang Garbage Lovers' Association collecting garbage to clean streets

Established in March 2022, the Da Nang Garbage Lovers’ Association has so far organised many environmental protection activities in Da Nang which have attracted a large number of participants.

Every month, the Association organises 1 - 2 garbage collection activities, aiming to create opportunities for young people to join hands in cleaning urban landscape, as well as raising public awareness about improving the quality of life, sorting waste at source, and not littering in public places.

With more than 100 permanent members and over 200 non-permanent members, the Association is always present in every corner of streets citywide to collect garbage at least once a week, especially after festivals, storms and floods. Included are the Da Nang Hot Air Balloon Festival, Nguyen Tat Thanh and Son Tra beaches, wet markets, densely populated areas, and the Quan The Am Festival.

Members of the Association are mainly young people, and university students who show enthusiasm and have special love for environmental protection. Whether the weather is hot or rainy, they are still happy and eager to clean up garbage to protect environment.

To protect the safety of members when dealing with waste, each member participating in garbage collection activities is equipped with thick gloves and a garbage picker.

Members of the Garbage Lovers' Association actively involved in selling vegetarian bread at 526 Nui Thanh Street, Hai Chau District to raise funds for their activities.

During the competition nights at the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival 2023, although it was late at night, many members of the Association got actively involved in collecting trash to return clean and beautiful roads to the city.

Mrs. Xuyen, an environmental sanitation worker, said “After fireworks performances, the amount of garbage doubles that of normal days, so we have to work very hard. However, thanks to the active support from groups of young volunteers, our job went smoothly and quickly".

According to Mr. Vo Dinh Trong, the leader of the Da Nang Garbage Lovers’ Association, the association's desire is to attract more members, and at the same time share knowledge about environmental protection. Aside from garbage collection, the association aims to recycle garbage or create handmade products from plastic waste.

Moreover, members of the Association also participate in the sale of vegetarian bread to raise funds for charity activities at 526 Nui Thanh Street, Hai Chau District on the first and last days of the lunar month.

Reporting by HUONG MIEN - Translating by M.DUNG