Last Sunday, after a pleasant walk in the mountains with my dog, I passed by the organic food place in my neighborhood and went to buy some buckwheat noodles. The usually sleepy venue was packed with people, most of them, it turned out, avid environmentalists. In the picture is Mrs. Hu, the store owner (and quickly becoming my personal hero), showing off her trash cans made from trash. She plans to sell them and donate the proceeds to environmental cleanup efforts.

I got into a conversation about trash cleanup. Lots of Chinese throw trash on the ground without a thought. One lady was talking up organizing a group to pick up trash somewhere in Hangzhou. She also runs a big brother big sister like program, and suggested she could bring some of the kids along. Another lady said she had some media contacts and perhaps could make a story out of it.

Mrs. Hu was telling me a story the other day about a foreigner in Western China that started picking up trash himself on the weekends and ended up inspiring more than a thousand people to join him in the process every weekend. Very inspiring to be amidst all the passion.