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Consumers' habits must change

The Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) policies limiting the use of disposable plastic bags and eating utensils take effect today. Employees in the affected industries have resisted the measures out of concern for their jobs and benefits. One can understand why the head of the EPA would try to defend his policy by vowing to step down if the proposal fails to reduce waste. But for most people, who have long depended on disposable, environmentally unfriendly products even as they long for a better environment, their basic doubts center on whether the elimination of plastic bags and disposable eating utensils will really do anything for Taiwan's environment. Moreover, if the head of the EPA really does lose out in the ensuing battle and is forced to resign, what hope is there for Taiwan's environment then?

The National Science Council recently released its "White Paper on Prospects and Strategies for Sustainability in Taiwan," which points out that today's Taiwan is "so impoverished that all it has left is money" and is increasingly moving toward an unsustainable position.

It appears that the slogan of "sustainable development," which has resounded for the past 10 years, didn't do anything to put Taiwan on the right road to economic development. The experience of developed nations suggests that economics is the behind-the-scenes force that drives unsustainable consumption.

Environmental issues like air and water pollution, the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, loss of biological diversity and the destruction of nesting grounds are all directly related to the ways in which society uses the earth's resources.

Choosing to use fossil fuels rather than renewable energy, being inclined toward energy consumption rather than energy conservation, these are obviously decisions that have been shaped by economic considerations. When economic benefits outweigh the need to protect nesting grounds, land use will necessarily be altered, and at least some of that change is intimately related to consumption patterns for goods and services of all sorts. "Sustainability" would not have become an issue if it weren't for the demand for goods and services, the waste that this produces and the increasingly unsustainable use of resources. In other words, changing unsustainable behavior actually depends on establishing an economic environment in which this behavior is no longer attractive.

For Taiwan, which is gradually becoming fully developed economically, changing unsustainable consumption patterns in daily life will have a decisive influence on the quest for sustainable development. Household consumption in the form of energy and water resource usage, waste production, traffic patterns and food choices, has an influence on the environment.

For many years, environmental policies around the world have focused on manufacturing, mainly on pollution prevention and the ecological effects of pollution. Very little is known about household consumption patterns and the forces that drive them. So governments have failed to grasp what role to play to promote patterns of sustainable consumption and that a range of different policy tools needs to be selected and implemented in this regard. According to the most recent analysis done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the impact of household consumption activities on the environment has worsened over the last 30 years. We can anticipate that without effective and comprehensive policies, the situation will get even worse in the next 20 years. According to the definition of "sustainable consumption" put forward by former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, the term refers to consumption that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The process by which consumers make decisions is complex. They are influenced by different and often conflicting standards, including autonomous incentives (price, quality, personal taste, lifestyle) and incentives deeply rooted in society (culture, personal status, social background, issues of environmental and social concern).

At present, and for the foreseeable future in Taiwan, as personal incomes rise, the numbers of career women, individual households and retired people increase, and lifestyles change accordingly, more and more individualized purchasing patterns are resulting, and this will lead to even more processed products with even more packaging. Whether Taiwan's development will be sustainable depends entirely upon whether we can continue to adopt effective and appropriate measures to guide the economy toward sustainability. But since production and consumption are determined by many corollated but separate decisions, it is quite difficult to push for reform in this direction. One of the major challenges faced in the process of moving toward sustainable development will be to establish the necessary clear objectives and methods of policy implementation.

To promote sustainable household consumption, the government's general policy framework should include the following: a price structure for consumable goods and services that reflects environmental costs and benefits; a framework of policies and norms to clarify matters, change direction, and set priorities; and a range of environmentally friendly goods and services. Moreover, the design and handling of the transport network, housing and waste management should incorporate basic infrastructure and technology to maintain environmental quality standards while educating and informing the consumer movement. In the end, however, this work is not restricted to the management or scientific sphere. Even more importantly, it requires the support of responsible politicians with a sense of mission.

Hua Jian is an associate professor at National Taiwan Ocean University.

Translated by Ethan Harkness
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