What We Can Learn From the Taiwanese

I was at this shop situated along Chung San Bei Lu Sec. One when I suddenly heard music from "The Maiden's Prayer". To my surprise, the shopkeepers along the stretch of road ran towards the garbage truck with their bags of garbage neatly put in different baggages. The ones already on the road were automatically carried by the garbage collectors. Behind the garbage truck was another truck which collected recylced items.! Wow! I was impressed! Papers, bottles, plastics were put in different bags. With the music playing and the people cheerfully throwing in their garbage, it looked more like a celebration.

I also observed that there was hardly any stench from the garbage trucks. The Taiwanese tied up their rubbish neatly. In contrast, our garbage trucks in Singapore often give out a pungent odour. Worse, every rubbish is jumbled up .... obviously no sign of recycling.

On the first night of my arrival at Taipei, I went to the 24 hour OK convenient store, and was surprised that the store keeper did not give me a plastic bag. If I wanted one, I had to pay NT10 for it. The Taiwanese believe in recyling and customers are encouraged to bring their own bags.

My second sister had complained that Taiwan is quite a dirty country. Now having visited Taiwan myself, I beg to differ. Perhaps things look dirty because most of the buildings are quite old. Yet, I notice that the streets hardly have litter, even though I hardly see rubbish bins around! The Taiwanese constantly remember to recycle.... they do not just dump everything into the rubbish bin. There are rubbish bins everywhere in Singapore, that people just conveniently throw rubbish into the bins.
The students would bring back their empty coca cola cans back to their homes or schools for recyling! A good example which we Singaporeans should emulate!

With our world's resources fast depleting, perhaps it is a good idea to rethink issues.
Let us be more conscious of our recyling efforts so as to help make this world a better place to live in. When we just want to throw away the newspapers together with our fish bones and prawn shells, let us think of how long it takes for a tree to grow!

Gan Chau