Taking away a city’s rubbish is a big job. Every day, trucks come into a city to collect it. Most rubbish is made up of things we can not eat or use. If we kept these things, we would soon have a mountain of rubbish.

In some cities the rubbish is collected and taken outside of a city to a dump. Often the city dump is a place where the ground is low or there is a big hole. The kitchen rubbish is broken into small pieces and sent into the sewage system. The sewage system takes away the used water from toilets, bathtubs and other places.

To keep mice and flies away, some earth is used to cover the newly dumped rubbish. Later, grass may be planted on the rubbish-filled land. Finally, a house or school may be built there, and then you’d never know that this had once been an old rubbish dump.

In other cities, the rubbish is burnt in special places. The fire burns everything but the metal. Sometimes the metal can be used again in factories where they are slowly changed into something called humus(腐殖质), which looks like black earth. It is rich with the kinds of things that feed plants and help make them grow.

In San Francisco, there is a special group of volunteers called Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF). They work hard to make their city greener. Now it has been 40 years since the group planted its first tree. Since then, FUF plants nearly 1,000 trees every year.

FUF welcomes new volunteers of all ages and abilities all year round. On Weekend Planting Days, FUF volunteers plant trees from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. After the work, everyone celebrates over a community lunch. On Thursday Planting Days, they plant “replacement trees”. As the name suggests, these trees replace trees that have died. Planting Leaders are very experienced volunteers. They usually wear a special FUF T-shirt. Some new volunteers who know little about “replacement trees” can easily find Planting Leaders and ask them for help.

In 1995, a programme called Tree Care was set up by FUF to improve the health of street trees in San Francisco. FUF’s tree experts make “house calls” to every newly-planted street tree once a month. They make sure the trees are growing well. Through Tree Care, people can learn why trees are important and how to take care of them. There are also Emergency Tree Care Volunteers at FUF. These volunteers save young trees that have fallen. They set out to work whenever FUF tells them which tree is in need.

In order to plant a love for trees in every person, FUF sends newsletters to people. It also offers tree tours and planting training. FUF’s Youth Programme trains teenagers like you to plant trees and care for trees. They hope to work with more people in the future.

Your school has planned a visit to Lions Nature Education Center. Here is what you should know about the center. Please read it.

Lions Nature Education Center

Lions Nature Education Center opened in 1991 on what was once a government farm in Sai Kung. Both the government and the Lions Club own it now.

Aims

The aim of the center is to show visitors everything to do with rural（乡下的） surrounding. We especially hope to educate people about the environment. For this reason, it’s really a popular place for school trips and outings.

Facilities（设施）

The center has large number of indoor and outdoor facilities and exhibitions（展品）. The outdoor facilities include a garden, vegetable fields and a place where trees are grown for study. Indoor exhibition halls provide different kinds of plants, fishes and other things from land or sea. The Farmers’ Market is open at weekends.

Rules for visitors

◇Wear proper clothes, shoes and hats.

◇Bring some water and food, but take your rubbish away with you.

◇Do not break any natural appearance or plants, and do not make the water dirty.

◇Care for other visitors and wildlife（野生动植物）, and do keep quiet wherever you go.

Opening hours

We are open daily from 9:30 a. m. to 5:00 p. m. Exhibition halls are open from 9:30 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. The center is closed every Tuesday.

Address: Hiram’s Highway, Sai Kung

Phone: 2792-2234

Website: http://www.hknature.net/lnec