“Waste” of a year
As part of my dual business masters degree, I took the opportunity to come to Taiwan and complete my studies at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei. For a year abroad, Taiwan seemed to be a good choice with many advantages. People are known to be quite welcoming, it is famously safe, and there are many places to visit during holidays and over the weekends. I also had the chance to complete an internship at DOMI Earth, the first company in Taiwan to be certified as a B Corp, a worldwide standard to acknowledge positive social and environmental impact by companies that seek to use business as a force for good.
From my first day in Taiwan, a lot of things jumped out at me. As I had been told, Taiwanese people are, indeed, very friendly and I always felt safe. The food is good and the transportation system is amazing. Even if it is an island, there’s lot to do. Apart from the occasional typhoon or earthquake, Taiwan is an enjoyable place to spend a year.
Beyond all that, I found something that stood out to me that I might not have expected: the trash. Or more precisely, the trash cans.
Back in France, my parents’ home has two places for waste: one for recyclable items–paper, plastic, glass, and metal–and another one for everything else. But when I moved away from home and into student housing, and later into shared apartments, I never again had a recycling can– at least not until I came to Taiwan.
I was pretty surprised to see a recycling bin at my apartment; even more surprised to learn that all of my friends in Taiwan had them too. Even in public places–at the Metro stations, the parks, and schools–I was finding public cans in pairs. I can’t recall ever having seen public recycling bins in France.
The world may think of France as the cultural capitol of the world, but when it comes to recycling culture, I think we can say that Taiwan is doing better.
As a guest in Taiwan, what could I do?
I took it as a challenge to live up to my host country’s standards.
I learned the rules governing the recycling bins and, after a few mistakes, had it pretty well figured out. I was feeling pretty good about myself!
But there was still something a little off about my behavior. I wasn’t living up to my best intentions. On one hand, I was recycling more but, on the other, I was consuming so much plastic and producing a ton of waste! Recycling made me realize just how much.
One day, I came across a video on Facebook of a French woman explaining how she became “Zéro Déchets,” or “Zero Waste.” She had made changes in her lifestyle so that she was throwing away almost nothing. As I started watching the video, I thought that living like that must be so complicated and full of constraints. But here was this woman, doing exactly what I envisioned, and making it look easy!
What were her tips? For one, she suggested buying bulk foods products that naturally lack plastic packaging. Another way is to replace disposable cleansing wipes with cloth. Not only is all this good for the environment–helping to avoid plastic in the ocean–but for our pockets too. Buy less, spend less!
I started reading more and more about this Zero Waste lifestyle. One example stayed with me because it “hit close to home.”
As you might already know, we French love our baguettes (or as I think of it, real bread!). We buy it nearly everyday. If I bought a reusable fabric bread bag and used that instead of the paper bag the bakery gives by default, I could save 3,650 paper bags over the course of 10 years! I’m definitely keeping that one in-mind for when I go back (especially since I’ll be eating a lot of real French bread when I’m back).
Inspired by what others were doing around the world, I decided that I didn’t want to wait until I went home to start making a difference. Taiwan might be good at recycling, but I certainly wasn’t the only one adding to the waste problem. To start, I started refusing plastic bags when I bought my groceries. But I knew from past experience that I had a hard time remembering to bring reusable bags when I shopped, so I decided to buy a fabric bag that was small enough to keep in my handbag. That way, I had it with me whenever I bought something.
Next, I decided to buy reusable cleansing wipes and a fabric bread bag. I also started trying to better estimate how much food I could eat so I wasn’t letting food go bad.
These first steps were so easy to implement. Whatever constraints I had imagined earlier now seemed trivial. And the experience gave me the desire to continue improving (Next step: buying my groceries in bulk!).
More than anything, I noticed that the difference came down to simply choosing to do something. Once I decided to care, it got so much easier to figure out what obstacles stood in the way of my personal goals, and to find ways to keep moving forward. Excuses no longer satisfied me.
I believe that one of the things we can learn from Taiwan is that we should recycle more and care more about the waste that we produce. The dual-bins help, but it’s about so much more than that. Taiwanese people try to respect their environment. I noticed for example that the streets and public spaces here are very clean. You won’t find trash simply lying around. Litter is nearly unheard of.
This is so far from being the case everywhere else around the world.
I think that these responsible habits comes from Taiwanese culture itself; a culture where it is important to follow the rules and to be respectful. I think it also comes from their education. During my stay in Taiwan, I had the opportunity to visit some primary schools and attend some classes with local school children. Here’s something you won’t find in France: everyday, at the end of classes, the kids clean their own classrooms and corridors. I only imagine that if you have to clean the space yourself, you become a lot more thoughtful about the waste you’re producing and how you’re disposing of it.
This past year in Taiwan, my decisions to adopt a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle were also driven by what I learned as part of my internship at DOMI Earth. DOMI helped me care more about my personal impact on the environment and made me realise that we can all take action to protect our planet. With climate change looming large, DOMI’s purpose is to get more and more people to take action. They focus on getting people to be more conscious about the way they use (and save) energy. I found myself becoming more and more careful about turning off lights when I leave a room or unplugging devices not in-use, especially at night.
My experiences in Taiwan made me realize that it was actually easy to act in a way that is more respectful of the environment. Once I understood how easy it could be, I had no doubt that I could do more, and do it now.
From my perspective, having lived abroad was an experience that allowed me to learn from a culture different than my own (hopefully, I’ve been a good representative of the French people and culture, too!). Taiwan is a place where people are eager to have conversations about things that matter. They’ll share their ideas and passions and welcome you to work with them.
So go live, work, and study abroad if you have the opportunity. What you learn might not only change you, but make the world a better place in the process.
An interesting article to help you become “Zero waste” : http://trashisfortossers.com/13-easy-zero-waste-resolutions-you-can-make-for-2018/
