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!
It's a nice article with nice pictures. Recycling should be emphasized all over the world. It's good that you can appreciate the positive aspects of other cultures and hopefully you can pick it up and adopt it in your own culture and share it to your friends.
ReplyDeleteHey Yeap Jun,
ReplyDeleteThis kind of reminded me of the time I spent in Japan. Yes, in Japan there is hardly any rubbish bin in public and there is also a culture of separating your waste at home. Japanese usually carry their waste home to keep the streets clean and sort their waste according to different classifications to aid in waste collection.
I think it is important to bear these little differences in mind even if we go on a short holiday to a foreign place. This is because it is often the little things that can lead to a huge culture shock. At the same time, these little things highlight a certain characteristic to a culture that can be insightful and useful to know in intercultural situations.
Hi Yeap Jun!
ReplyDeleteThis happens to be the case in Korea too! They also sort out their waste into the same three categories.
Before the trip, I made an effort to research on some of their culture practices but I did not come across anything on their waste habits. Personally, I do sort out my waste into general waste and recycling waste so that was not much of a problem for me. However, food waste was something new to me and I first noticed it when I was cooking in my hostel during my Korea trip.
It kind of came as a shock to me because the sight and smell of food waste can get quite disgusting (personally, to me) especially when they get piled up or not cleared regularly. Despite that, I made great efforts to sort out my food waste when cooking or tried my best to finish up or minimize my food (to avoid having food waste so that I did not have to encounter the food waste bin, haha.)
Rubbish bins were a rare sight too. Sometimes I would be holding onto rubbish in my hands and the sweet shop-holders would kindly offer to help me trash my rubbish.
I am glad that being in Singapore has instilled a habit of not littering in me so I did not have much difficulty in adapting to having to hold onto my rubbish (even though I do agree that it can be inconvenient holding onto rubbish).
I feel that it is a pity that Singapore rely too much on rubbish bins and cleaners. It would be great if we were to pick up this environmentally-friendly habit.
It is great to read up and learn about the cultures and habits of the place we will be visiting to avoid/reduce culture shock. We have to respect their culture and habits and be flexible in our actions when visiting other places to avoid conflicts and misunderstanding from the local people.
Cheers! -Serene
There's certainly a lot we Singaporeans can learn from these countries about being civic-minded. Often Singaporeans tend to be too self-centred and expect the government to take care of every little thing. Here's a great example of how individuals love their surroundings and go the extra mile to care for it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Yeap Jun!
DeletePs I deleted the previous comment as I noticed a typo in it.
This is the most relatable post I've read so far, since it's related to my course and happens to be my greatest area of interest too! Indeed, Taiwan, Japan and Korea are well-known for being very particular about the way their waste is handled, and I have always admired their meticulousness when it comes to sorting waste. Even though Singapore currently has one of the highest recycling rate (60%) in the world, there is definitely much more we can do as individuals and I am sure most of us would agree that recycling in Singapore, especially among the public and domestic homes, has yet to become a part of our Singaporean culture, just like the abovementioned countries with a strong recycling culture. We indeed have a lot to learn from them. My Chinese engineering professor who taught me about solid waste management was also quite surprised to know that the recycling culture in Singapore is not that strong when she arrived in Singapore, since we are often touted as a Clean and Green City. Nonetheless, there are ongoing efforts, which I personally feel are commendable and worthy of encouragement, and things are looking up. I guess it just takes time to inculcate a certain culture in people.
With regards to food waste, Singapore used to have a food waste recycling company called IUT Singapore Pte. Ltd. but it closed down in 2011 due to various factors, including insufficient supply of food waste. But I heard that there could be another one in Jurong in the future. Hopefully, more Singaporeans would be aware of the recycling cultures in these countries and thereafter adopt the habit of recycling and sorting their waste in their daily lives.
Cheers~
Ee Peng