While many couples enjoy taking their wedding photos at beautiful places, a Taiwanese couple endured the stench of a towering heap of garbage and embraced each other during their photo shoot.
Environmental organisation Greenpeace campaigner Iris Hsueh and her fiance took wedding photos together in front of a "garbage mountain" in Puli Township in central Taiwan on Oct. 14, Taipei Times reported.
Her intention? To encourage Taiwanese to reduce "excess waste", especially during her upcoming wedding.
Couple travelled for three hours to 'garbage mountain'
The couple is set to have an "environmentally friendly wedding" in January 2024, AFP reported. They have requested guests to bring their own containers for taking home leftovers.
Realising that actions speak louder than words, the Taipei-based couple travelled from the capital of Taiwan for three hours to the trash mountain for their wedding photo shoot.
The 33-year-old bride-to-be told AFP, "Many friends and relatives have since told me that they were quite moved when they saw our wedding photos and they are willing to continue to be vegetarians."
"Or that they are willing to start bringing their own food containers," she added.
Image via Iris Hsueh/Facebook.
Here's another photo to show the size of the "garbage mountain":
Image via 陳俊宏/Facebook.
Why Puli of all places?
Taipei Times reported that the lack of an incinerator and insufficient landfill space have caused an increase of trash dumped in the Puli garbage mountain over the years.
AFP also reported that the amount of trash produced from Puli has more than doubled, growing from 20 tonnes in the 1980s to the current 50 tonnes.
It should be noted, however, that Taiwan has been doing relatively well in its waste recycling efforts.
Over the last few decades, the island has transformed itself from "garbage island" to one of the world's "best managers" of household trash, The Guardian reported in December 2022. Taiwan claims to have one of the highest recycling rates in the world at 55 per cent.
The amount of solid waste that was recycled rose from 5.66 million tons in 2020 to 6.05 million tons in 2021, according to the island's official environmental statistics.
Musical garbage trucks collecting trash playing songs like Ludwig van Beethoven's "Für Elise" can be seen and heard throughout Taiwan's cities and counties.
@fesaritTAIWAN’s MUSICAL GARBAGE TRUCK♬ original sound - RESSY
Ocean trash 'smells more' than Puli's 'garbage mountain': bride
The couple's wedding photos on Facebook garnered huge local and worldwide media attention.
Hsueh told AFP, "I didn't think it would create such a big sensation."
Many Facebook commenters congratulated the couple, and praised Hsueh for her green initiative.
One Facebook user even asked her what she smelt when she stood in front of the trash mountain.
"There's a smell, but I think the trash from the bottom of the sea smells more and has a strong fishy smell, compared to garbage mountains," Hsueh replied.
You can view Hsueh's Facebook post here about the wedding shoot: