Yangtze River Headwaters Volunteering Day 5 长江源志愿工作第5天

This is a series of journals recording my days in the Yangtze River Headwaters volunteering project. I will try to update every day but there might be delays in the days I work in the wild without the internet. I’m also trying to write bilingual if time allows. Like it? Follow my Instagram (@anar.chica.yichenguo) for updates!
这是我参与长江源志愿工作的一系列记录。我争取每日更新，但在野外工作没有网络的那些日子会有延迟。在时间允许的情况下，也会尽量使用中英双语。喜欢的话，关注我的Ins账号(@anar.chica.yichenguo)获取更新吧！

7:10 in the morning, I went to patrol around the station and pick some trash. 
早上7:10跟恺哥巡站，在站内走一圈，捡捡垃圾。

We did a trash investigation at national road 109 before noon. This road carries 90% of all the goods transporting into Tibet, therefore there are always big trucks running on the road. The truck drivers are driving long distances and are too tired to think of the environment, therefore many of them throw trash everywhere. First, we investigate the trash condition in the range 50 meters along the road and 250 meters into the fields. It was not too bad. There were a few bottles and some small pieces of trash close to the road, other than that, there wasn’t much inside the field. While we were busy doing our job, there were pikas staring at us with curiosity and alert. This kind of cute rodent at the bottom of the food chain is flooding in the Tibetan plateau. They’ve fed many precious wild animals and their activities are beneficial for the land to change from semi-sandy land to useful earth. After investigation of this area, we started to pick up trash in the range 1 km along the road and 50 meters into the fields. Plastic bottles are the most common trash, soon they’ve filled several big bags. Many drivers couldn’t wait to find public toilets, they pee into the drank-up bottles. When we picked such bottles, we need to pour out the pee before recycling. Normally, if you see unknown yellow liquid inside the bottle, then that’s it. Most of them are 1/4 – 1/3 full, but sometimes you can also find full bottles. When they throw bottles out of the truck, they don’t usually mind where the bottles go. I picked a few right outside of pikas’ homes. Some of them have already blocked the entrance. What bothers me most is that when some people get off to answer the call of nature, they might have found the holes quite convenient therefore poo into them, follow with toilet paper covering the whole thing including the holes. Can you imagine the pikas’ feelings who live inside?
上午去109国道边进行垃圾调查。109国道承载了进藏物资的90%，大卡车不断，司机师傅长途辛苦，环保意识相对也较差，随手扔垃圾的便大有人在。我们首先在沿公路50米长深入路边250米的范围内展开调查。情况不算太糟，沿路较近的区域时有空瓶出现，另有些零碎的垃圾，深入内部垃圾量就很少了。我们一边走着一边有鼠兔站在自己的窝边好奇又警觉地看着我们。这种在青藏高原泛滥的可爱的食物链底端的啮齿萌物养活了众多种类的珍惜野生动物，他们的活动甚至有利于栖息地的去沙地化。这一片调查结束后，我们开始在宽50米，沿线一公里的路两边捡垃圾。塑料瓶是常见丢弃物，很快就装满了几大袋。不少司机内急等不及找厕所，就方便在喝完的塑料瓶里，我们捡拾的时候要把瓶里的尿液倒掉再回收。一般来说，看到瓶里装着不明黄色液体那就是了。大部分是1/4到1/3的量，偶尔也有装满的。一般往车外扔东西的人都不太会注意扔到了哪里，我在好几个鼠兔的家门口捡出了瓶瓶罐罐，有些已经把洞口堵死了。最可恨的是有人下车上厕所，可能觉得洞口方便，就无耻地拉在里面，末了卫生纸也盖在上面。这让住在里面的鼠兔情何以堪？

After a nap at noon, we separated the trash that we picked in the morning. Plastic bottles, iron cans, aluminum cans, metal parts are recorded and stored separately. The rest are put into the big trash bin to be transported to the landfill close by. The trash disposal ability in the Tibetan plateau is not so advanced. This little town in the center of hundreds of miles around. It is good enough to have a landfill. The recycled trash is usually transported to our Golmud station more than three hundred kilometers away by the passing tourists, empty loaded trucks and military vehicles, and then transport to the nearest trash recycling center. 
午觉后对捡回的一皮卡垃圾进行分类。塑料瓶、铁罐、铝罐、金属件等分类记录放好，剩余的倒入大垃圾桶，运往附近的垃圾填埋场。青藏高原垃圾处理能力较差，我们这一眼看到头的小镇是方圆几百公里的中心地域，能有一个填埋场实属不易。需要分类回收的垃圾一般通过过路的游客、空返卡车和军车带到三百多公里外的格尔木驿站，再送往附近的垃圾处理中心。

The rest of the time I was on duty in the post office. There was a tourist poorly educated came to the station today. Although he is not very nice while talking to us, he doesn’t mean bad. My years of experience in the construction industry has given me the ability to handle different types of people. I’m not irritated easily and I don’t irritate him either. I patiently showed him around the exhibition area, explaining our history and vision, and even chat with him for a while, trying my best to provide some advice he needs. 
剩余的时间在邮局值班。偶有教育水平不高的游客在此停留，虽讲话有些无赖没素质，但也并无坏心。建筑业几年的经验似乎让我更容易从容应对不同种类的人群，不暴躁、不激怒对方，耐心地带领参观保护站的展厅，讲解这里的历史和愿景，甚至陪聊一会儿，力所能及地提供一些对方需要的建议。

Some of us didn’t have particular plans in the evening so we gathered in the post office with the lights off and chat while eating snacks. We talked about the meaning of volunteering here or even the meaning of this conservation station. In fact, what we do here is too little for the whole nature. Trash investigation cleans up this little piece of land, the trash taken away by the tourists are only a small, clean part of everything. The point of all these is mainly for spreading environmental awareness to as many people as possible. The tourists also have a sense of fulfillment when they take away some trash. At times there are social media popular account holders come here to do live shows. And for each of us, on the one hand, we’ve all made interesting friends, on the other hand, being away from old routines and experience new things can give us fresh new input and inspirations as long as we attentively observe, learn and think. 
晚上无事，几个人聚在邮局里关了灯边吃零食边聊天。说到在这里做志愿者的意义，甚至是整个保护站的意义。其实我们做的这些对于整个自然环境来说真的是太微不足道了。拉调清理一方土，请游客带垃圾也只是所有垃圾中很小的、干净的一部分，这些事情的主要意义还是在于宣传，环保理念尽量灌输更多的人。游客们带了垃圾自己也有成就感，保护站时不时就有直播播主来，其中也有粉丝数量众多的小网红。而对于我们个人来说，一方面收获了不少神奇的朋友，另一方面远离平常的生活，接触新事物，只要用心观察学习和思考，就会有很多新鲜有趣的输入带来新的灵感。