More than 90 percent of junior-high and senior-high school students have no knowledge about the nation’s energy sources, a poll released yesterday by the King Car Cultural and Educational Foundation showed.
The foundation regularly surveys students’ opinions about environmental issues before the summer vacation starts in July, foundation executive director Joyce Tseng (曾清芸) told a news conference in Taipei.
Less than 10 percent of the respondents were aware that more than 90 percent of the nation’s energy is imported, similar to the findings of the polls conducted in the past two years, foundation executive secretary Chen Chien-chih (陳建志) said.
Asked where they obtain information about environmental issues, 64.6 percent said they mainly obtain such information from teachers, 49.9 percent said from media reports and 49.1 percent said from online sources, the poll found.
More than 86 percent of the students said they frequently buy freshly made beverages, but of those only 20 percent said they use reusable bags and straws, it showed.
Overall, 54 percent of the students said they use reusable utensils for meals, but the ratio fell to 42.6 percent among junior-high school students and to 38.1 percent among senior-high school students, the poll found.
The results highlight the need to promote environmental awareness through more consistent and comprehensive methods, Tseng said.
Sharing her experience of running a school campaign to reduce the use of plastics, Affiliated Experimental Elementary School of University of Taipei teacher Hsu Pei-lin (許沛琳) said that changing students’ habits was the most challenging part.
The school gradually tightened its policy to reduce the use of plastics over the past three years, she said.
To reduce the amount of garbage produced at big events, the school last month leased utensils at a fair, she added.
A class of students also refused to offer single-use plastic utensils at their booth selling snacks and they ended up making the most money, she said.
However, single-use plastic products are still prevalent in many places outside schools, such as traditional markets, Hsu said, urging the government to continue to limit the use of disposable plastic products.
The poll conducted in March collected 3,036 valid samples from students from 49 elementary, junior-high and senior-high schools across the nation. It has a confidence level of 97 percent and a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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