Waste management and recycling education in Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan has implemented waste management and recycling education in schools since the 1980s and been recognized with her higher recycling rate than many developed nations worldwide, as reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2016. This chapter reviews the projects and policies of Environmental Education to investigate their impact on school waste management and recycling education in Taiwan. These influential projects include the Green School Partnership Network Project, Sustainable Campus Project, Environmental Protection School Award, and the National Environmental Education Award. Important policies are the Grades 1–9 National Curriculum Framework, Environmental Education Act and Grades 1–12 National Curriculum Framework. The chapter indicates that the development of waste management and recycling education in Taiwan consists of different stages: schoolyard cleaning activities; garbage classification and recycling; environmental management of school, curriculum and teaching; and practical practices in daily lives. The chapter concludes a set of waste management and recycling education elements: being relevant to daily life and achievable goals; following the global trend of environmental education; applying a systematic operation and a whole school approach; infusing waste management and recycling into the school curriculum and over-all learning; and considering responsibility and sustainable development. The chapter also proposes with a strategy for waste management and recycling education in schools: offering incentives, such as reducing costs of waste disposal, encouraging learning through activities, building networks to share and promote recycling education, infusing waste management and recycling into the school curriculum, awarding for systemic operation, and applying the whole school approach to recycling education.