"Celebrity sanitation worker" appeals to the public to love the environment

She told reporters that when the camera captured her, she was changing her socks, which had been drenched by the snow. This was the third time she changed her stockings that day. Sun said that the snow had drenched her shoes and stockings and twice she had to change her shoes, in addition to her socks. "Not only me, many of my colleagues also had wet shoes and socks." said Sun.

When reporters told her that she was called the most respectable person on the first day of 2010 Spring Festival by netizens, she said with a smile, "Because it is our job. Since we choose to do this kind of job, we should to do it well. I speak for all sanitation workers when I express my thanks to netizens for their support and at the same time, I sincerely hope more netizens will support our work in the future."

"The Sun Meilan Team" was set up. The members of the team will be handed out the new shoes as well as rain boots.

On the afternoon of February 22, reporters learned from Qinghe District of Huaian City that the cleaning team in which Sun works was nominated as the "Sun Meilan Team" by the local government. Director Ye participated in the inauguration ceremony. Ye told reporters the sanitation department handed out new working shoes to the workers on February 20. In addition, gloves, gauze masks, soap, bathroom tissue and other labor protection items were all handed out on time according to the relevant rules. Because the city is in the south and it seldom snows, all of the working shoes are breathable to make them more comfortable for workers, but they are not waterproof. However, rain boots were also provided in order to allow the workers to continue their work on rainy days.

Zhang Donglai, director of Huaian Urban Management Bureau, said in this interview that their Bureau was also moved by the fact that Sun and her colleagues stuck to their post and in the meantime, they are thinking about how they can reduce the burden on sanitation workers. Currently, Huaian City has bought several large pieces of cleaning equipment, including street sweeper trucks and cleaning trucks to automate some of the work and fundamentally reduce the intensity of their labor.

Taking labor safety into consideration, they have handed out new shoes and socks for thousands of workers and decided to increase parts of workers' salary this year.

The sanitation workers work all year round.

It is hoped that people will not litter

Ye said that sanitation workers have to work for 365 days without a rest, and they always start working at 4:00 am every morning and work until 10:30 pm. Though two sanitation workers always take turns working, it is still very tiring. Their hard work also earned most people’s respect and praise. However, some people do not comply with public rules and litter everywhere, which just gives them more work. For example, some drivers throw litter out the window as they are driving, some toss fruit peels on the street when they were waiting for a bus, and the owners of stores often throw their litter on the street. These actions, regardless if they are done on purpose of not, create trouble for the sanitation workers. Ye appealed through www.people.com.cn for people to protect the environment and respect sanitation workers.