SD Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Our aim was to let students of the university be aware of the current situation and understand the circumstance through their daily habits: they would hopefully realize if their habits are wasteful and adjust accordingly also thanks to our suggestions. We obviously cannot force change on other people. If our plan affected just a few people and made even a single person change their mind and decide to adopt more environmentally friendly practices, the plan would be a success.
We questioned an equal number of girls and boys and almost everyone was willing to take part in the questionnaire. I was quite shocked that nobody refused to do the questionnaire, as in my home country this activity is viewed as quite the burden, usually resulting in a waste of time. Here in Taiwan, however, not only did the students accept, but they also asked more information about this activity, from asking my classmates more information about themselves, to thoroughly reading the questions with attention. They didn't just answer the questions. After answering one of the questions, some would pause before going to the next, meaning that perhaps they were thinking if the things they do every day are that resourceful after all. Overall, this experience of interacting with Taiwanese students and the overall concept of using a questionnaire was quite positive, not just for me but also for my classmates as well.
What we could gather as an overall result, is that the Taiwanese people are quite aware of situations regarding garbage use, and water and electricity consumption, perhaps with the aim of saving some money. People occasionally bring their own chopsticks, food boxes and shopping bags with them; it is up to them to make it more of a frequent habit. Hopefully through this experience, we encouraged some of them to do so.
I feel like what can be worked on is garbage waste. After learning that if you brought your own food container to take away food, the actual meal would be cheaper, I thought to myself that having your own food box at all times has way more advantages than disadvantages. If people knew about it I think they'd be more inclined to do the same as well.
Tain Rui (Italy)