A few
months ago, Daniel, a friend of mine went to Taiwan with his brother, Ethan for a
holiday trip. We met up after his trip as he wanted to pass me some souvenirs
he bought from Taiwan. I was rather curious about his holiday in Taiwan so I
asked him how it went. He was really eager to share his experience with me as
that was his first time going to Taiwan. When he was sharing his overseas trip story with me, I had a very deep impression on the cultural differences we have in the way people deal in rubbish in Singapore and Taiwan.
He had a Taiwanese
friend, Wei Lian, that he knew in his course of study in university and they were
still in contact even though he returned to Taiwan after obtaining his degree in Singapore. In order to cut cost on the accommodation, he approached Wei Lian and asked if he could stay at his house for the whole of the trip. Wei Lian agreed readily and volunteered to be their tour guide for the duration of their trip. On the first night, Wei Lian brought Daniel and Ethan to one of the most famous night market, Shilin Night Market, to have a taste of the good food in the night market.
He described the food so vividly that made me feel hungry throughout the duration of our conversation. After finishing his food, Daniel wanted to
find a rubbish bin to discard the waste. While he was trying to look for a
rubbish bin, Wei Lian noticed and asked him if he was looking for a rubbish
bin. He nodded and Wei Lian told him that there is almost no garbage bins found in the public. Daniel and Ethan were quite puzzled. In
Singapore, rubbish bins are found along the streets so that people can discard
their rubbish conveniently. Wei Lian told him that Taiwanese has the habit of
collecting their rubbish and throwing them at home. It was part of their
culture to do so as they would want to keep their streets clean. Daniel
thought it was quite weird of them to do so as it was really quite a hassle to
carry your rubbish wherever they went. Although he felt weird, he knew that he was in Taiwan and should respect their culture. Thus, he hang on to his bag of rubbish until
they were back at Wei Lian’s house.
During the stay at Wei Lian’s house, Daniel observed that Wei Lian’s family has the habit of sorting out their rubbish into different types. He found it rather interesting because in Singapore, it is rare for people to do waste sorting. But at the same time, he did not understand why they need to go through so much effort to sort out the rubbish. Not realizing that he was a little insensitive, he asked Wei Lian,
“Why do Taiwanese waste so much effort and time to do rubbish sorting?”
Wei Lian knew where he was coming from and so he was not really offended by Daniel's words. Instead, he showed him this poster below.
(source: http://www.matsu.idv.tw)
Wei Lian
told him about the history of waste sorting in Taiwan and why they did so. In 1996, the Taiwan government implemented the "rubbish free" policy and this was also the reason why Daniel couldn't find rubbish bins in the night market.
In Taiwan, they classified
their waste into three types: recyclable waste, food waste and general waste. (To the non-chinese friends/readers, this
is what is written in the poster seen above.) Recyclable waste refers to things like paper, used batteries,
cans, plastic bottles and glass. General waste refers to those that are
non-recyclable, for example, used tissue papers. They also have a food waste category which was something not heard of in Singapore. On top of that, they have
specific garbage trucks to collect the different types of waste. The collective effort of all Taiwanese definitely did not go to waste. Their waste collection
rate of 35.4% was even higher than that of UK (27%) and USA (32.5%) in 2006
which was remarkable.
Daniel was
really impressed by the amount of effort Taiwanese put in to sort out their rubbish.
However, he felt embarrassed because of his insensitivity when asking Wei Lian
the question. Wei Lian told him it’s all right as he did not take it to heart. To make up for what he did wrong, he gave Wei
Lian a treat before he came back to Singapore. He also promised Wei Lian that when he comes to Singapore for a short holiday, he will tell him more about the cultures Singaporeans practised.
From the
conversation with Daniel, I gained knowledge of the recycling and waste sorting
culture in Taiwan. It is also important to respect the culture practiced by people
in other countries as it is their culture that makes them unique in their own
ways. I am considering going on a holiday to Taiwan during the next semester
break. I shall do more research on their
culture before heading there!
