Canon Volunteer Team practiced “Leave No Trace” to clean up the trash on the hiking trails
Environmental conservation has always been the core part of corporate social responsibility of Canon Hongkong Company Limited (Canon HK). In the past 3 years, Canon HK Corporate Volunteer Team held annual coastal cleanup service, visited the marine litter black spots such as Sha Chau & Lung Kwu Chau Marine Park, Tung Lung Island, Junk Bay in Shek O & Tsin Yue Wan in Tai O and removed nearly 800 kg of marine litter. This year under the attack of the epidemic, almost all recreational activities were forced to be suspended. Many people chose to go to the country parks for hiking and relax while removing their masks to take a breath of fresh air in our nature. However, many visitors brought the problem of a large amount of trash left behind. Trash accumulation not only destroys the natural environment but also leads to hygiene problems and, more seriously, may cause wild animals to mistakenly taken human-made garbage, threatening their health and affecting their feeding behaviors.
In view of this, Canon HK joined hand with Canon Engineering Hong Kong to form a Corporate Volunteer Team and partnered with "The Green Earth" again this year to organize the "Leave No Trace X Hiking Trail Cleanup" volunteer service at Shing Mun Reservoir Country Park, one of the most popular hiking site in holidays, on November 15. With trash collection equipment including hand gloves, clips and net bags, volunteers were divided into group of 4 to pick up trash along three different popular trails during the service. After 4 service hours, about 20 kg of trash was collected.
Compared to the types of marine litter collected in previous services, there was no large furniture, discarded wood, or Styrofoam boxes on the trail. However, plastic types of garbage like plastic bags, bottles and food packaging were found widespread. In addition, used tissue paper, cigarette butts, fruit peels, egg shells, and even used masks were abandoned. With this service experience, the volunteers were deeply aware of the seriousness of the country park’s current trash problem. They pledged to be responsible hikers by well planning and bringing self-owned water bottles and food containers to reduce waste at source. Even trash was produced, they will get them back to city to practice “Leave No Trace” while hiking in the future.
Mr. Shunichi Morinaga, President and CEO of Canon HK, said: "Canon HK has been supporting environmental conservation and organizes a variety of activities involving our staff to care for the nature. The annual clean-up volunteer service helps to raise the awareness on how litter harms the environment and poses threat to the wild animals. Some parents were educating their children on hiking etiquette of "take your own trash home" while Canon Volunteer Team were cleaning up the hiking trail. We are pleased to set an example for the next generation and spread the message on environmental conservation.
As one of the members of Corporate Volunteer Team, Mr. Shunichi Morinaga (2nd on the left) cleaned up the trash on the hiking trail at Shing Mun Reservoir Country Park.
