Making recycling a habit, Taiwan-style

Goh Sui Noi, Straits Times 11 Jun 08;

DURING my week in Taipei last month to cover President Ma Ying-jeou's inauguration, I carried in my shoulder bag - besides tape recorder, pen and notebook - a Family Mart plastic bag.

I had bought it on the first day I arrived to carry my purchases at the convenience store near my hotel. It cost only NT$2 (9 Singapore cents), but I did not want to be buying one every time I purchased something.

Carrying it around with me reminded me of the days when I was a correspondent in Taiwan. I had written about Mr Ma, then mayor of Taipei, carrying a plastic bag with him wherever he went. He would whip out his bag at every opportunity to promote his plan to have residents pay for garbage bags in order to encourage recycling.

This was how it worked: Residents would have to use regulation garbage bags, the prices of which were pegged to the cost of garbage disposal. But they could use other bags such as old shopping bags for separated recyclable trash. The purpose of the scheme was twofold: To reduce waste generation and to encourage recycling.

There were many complaints. There would be counterfeit bags, some said. There would be illegal dumping, it was inconvenient, houses were too small to accommodate separation bins and so on.

The biggest worry for Mr Ma and his supporters, though, was that the unpopular scheme would cost him his re-election as mayor. That did not happen.

The scheme was adopted in 2000. Mr Ma went on to win re-election in a landslide two years later, and the presidency this year. And Taipei expanded its waste reduction/recycling scheme to include food waste, and later required retail outlets to charge for plastic bags. It now also prohibits the use of plastic tableware at food outlets.

A Singaporean told me of his experience in Taipei at a seminar where participants ate lunch out of lunchboxes. After eating, he was about to throw his disposable lunchbox into a bin when he was stopped by a Taiwanese, who politely asked him to throw the leftover food into a separate food waste bin. He was impressed.

After Mr Ma was elected president, TV stations started playing old footage of him as mayor. One clip showed him using his personal pair of stainless steel chopsticks, which he carries with him everywhere he goes.

He is leading by example again as president. The thermostat at his presidential office is now set at 26 deg C to 28 deg C. Energy-saving lighting is used. Staff are required to use just enough lighting for work.

Indeed, there are 10 energy-conserving guidelines for presidential staff - including using the stairs rather than the lift, using fans rather than air-conditioners wherever possible and, for male staff, ditching the suit except for formal functions.

The message of conservation is everywhere in Taiwan - on billboards, TV, radio, you name it.

One day in a taxi, my attention was drawn to a woman's voice on the radio. She was hailing the advent of the bottled water for its convenience. But then she enumerated the costs of using plastic bottles.

The cost of manufacturing the bottle was several times more than the cost of the water it contains, she pointed out. The plastic is harmful to the human body if one is not careful, the bottles last for a long time and are harmful to the environment and so on. Her conclusion: It is better to carry your own reusable water bottle when you go out.

It was a short clip, but it was persuasive because it explained why one should not buy bottled water.

My sense is that the conservation and recycling message is not as ubiquitous in Singapore as it is in Taiwan. We do not make as concerted an effort to educate and change habits in this area.

As consumers of resources rather than producers - and since we plan to help others build eco-friendly cities - we should be doing much more to conserve and recycle.