One-hundred Shenzheners, including Vice Mayor Lu Ruifeng and officials from the municipal environmental protection bureau, participated in an event aimed at promoting a "recycling economy" yesterday.

"Discovering Beauty Through Recycling Waste," was the theme of the event, held just one week ahead of World Environment Day on June 5.

More than 10,000 Shenzheners will be recruited for the upcoming recycling events to be held in various city communities, officials with the municipal environmental protection bureau said.

During yesterday's event, 100 volunteers recruited from the public were divided into five groups and sent to different districts in the city after a brief ceremony at the Citizens' Center.

Lu and Guo Yurong, director general of the environmental protection bureau, joined the "Green Family" group with 20 children and their parents and took part in events held at a vocational school. Lu and other government officials learned how to make handicrafts from waste paper, with assistance from the school staff.

Lu said he found recycling a great deal of fun. "We used to believe wastes are a burden to our life and environment. However, we want to convince people through this activity that wastes could be usable after proper treatment," Lu said, with a cap made of waste paper on his head.

In the other four groups, 80 volunteers took metal, glass and plastic waste to a waste treatment and recycling plant and helped in the recycling process. The group consisting of representatives from local enterprises went to a metal factory in Bao'an District to recycle waste metal. Housewives went to a nursery in Yantian and used garbage as fertilizer while students went to a glass factory in Nanshan to learn how to turn glasses into fine handicraft. The group of migrant workers went to a dustbin factory in Longgang and turned used cans into dustbins.

Volunteers can call 12369 for more information.

Editor: Yan