Visiting the Prince of Trash Bags

After we read the article, written by Miss Julia Ross, on Washington Post, the question we wanted to ask was, “How could Taipei City Government treat the trash?」

What had the citizens done?” It was said that Mr. Chen Shi Hong, Minister of Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R. O. C. (Taiwan) was “the Prince of Trash Bags”. Nine years ago, Mr. Chen was the commissioner of Department of Environmental Protection, Taipei City Government (TDEP). During that term of office, he tried to carry out the policy of “A Charge of Trash Bags” in Taipei and made it rather successful.

Mr. Chen was a gentle man. He received us friendly. The place we were meeting was the gorgeous garden on the roof of his office building. It was, somewhat, like a party but not like the official interview.

When Minister Chen showed up, all of us kept in silence. The atmosphere was a little embarrassed. Luckily, Minister Chen himself was humor and kind. He called himself with smile as “the Prince of Trash Bags”. He said it was rather difficult to carry out the policy of “A Charge of Trash Bags”. But now it was proved that the policy was very successful because the quantity of the garbage was decreased over 1,500 tons one day after putting the policy into practice. It decreased half of the quantity of garbage in Taipei. Moreover, after carrying out the policy of “To Recycle Kitchen Waste”, there were almost 140 tons of kitchen waste would be recycled one day. Today, the quantity of garbage in Taipei was reduced to 40%. This great achievement was glaring. The Environmental Association of Singapore recommended Taipei as the best government which had well done the environmental protection in Asia area in 2001.

The Ladder Leading to Succes

Minister Chen attributed the success to the cooperation of Taipei citizens.

He explained further, “It is simple to do something by oneself, but it is difficult to let everyone take part in the movement.” In the beginning, when City Government decided to charge the trash bags, the officers wondered how to make the citizens know the policy and how to let them know where they could buy the trash bags.

Minister Chen said, “It was like to climb the ladder when Taipei City Government carried out the policy of ‘A Charge of Trash Bags’ in July 01, 2000. The citizens had to learn to change their behavior. A movement of changing behavior was like to step up a stair. The clear and definite goal and common consensus would inspire people to participate in the movement, and the social behavior would be formed as a ladder leading to success. The changing behavior like climb the ladder transformed people’s habits. Now the citizens in Taipei get used to reduce the garbage by the behaviors of using city-approved trash bags and recycling the trash. Changing people’s behavior to protect the earth environment was the responsibility of the government. And Taipei City Government used the ladder theory leading to success.

No Garbage on the Ground

Minister Chen explained continuously, “To charge trash bags was the policy of Mr. Ma Ying Jiu, the former mayor of Taipei. Before that, Mayor Chen Shui Bian had done a great thing. He carried out the policy of “No Garbage on the Ground.”

When Mr. Chen Shui Bian was the mayor of Taipei, he found the sidewalks were drowning in rotting garbage. The citizens got used to throw out the garbage on the roadside and then the sanitation workers would come and clean the garbage later. It would cause the garbage pollution. Mayor Chen Shui Bain set the policy of “No Garbage on the Ground” into action. The citizens had to wait for the garbage truck in the line. It is just like Miss Julia Ross said, “Waiting for the garbage truck is one of Taiwan’s liveliest communal rites.” Waiting in the line for the garbage truck was a special situation to Taipei citizens. The phenomena, maybe, told us Taipei citizens were the law-abiding residents.

After Interview

Minister Chen was very friendly when the interview was undergoing. His explanation was clear and active. He arranged the meeting attentively. The interview provided us the chance to learn the knowledge of environmental protection and the ways to treat the garbage. We really appreciated that Minister Chen could accept our interview and his manner and speech style provided us a good example to learn.

Surprisingly, Minister Chen gave each of us a bag of gift, after the interview. The gifts were delicate and beautiful. Most importantly, the gifts were the items for doing environmental protection. Here we wanted to express our sincere gratitude to Minister Chen for his kindness.