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was made by sorting the caps and the rings from the bottles, which Tzu Chi volunteers do by hand (Chung 2010) (See Appendix 3, no. 11).
Da.ai Technology is, just as any company, a paying employer. Its interviewed employees however mention that for some working for the company is not so much a salary choice.
It seems that especially for more senior workers, salaries at other (recycled) textile companies lie much higher. Instead, the feeling of working for a company closely related to the Tzu Chi Foundation is said to be an additional incentive by one of the interviewees (Appendix 3, no. 12). It must be noted too that many of the employees at Da.ai Technology were also said to be volunteers for Tzu Chi during their free time.
Since working on textiles made from PET, Da.ai has continued to increase its range of recycling technologies. Currently, they have projects focusing on retrieving oil from plastic products, making plastic into wood substitutes used in for example garden furniture, and on recycling used textiles. Moreover, many of the support materials they use abroad, such as foldable beds and prefabricated houses, are made and developed further by Da.ai.
5.3 Recycling since 2006: new goals
In 2006, news of Tzu Chi’s efforts to turn PET-bottles into textiles spread rapidly and both led volunteers to work harder towards collection of these, while also increasing willingness of community members to separate and donate their PET-bottles to the Tzu Chi Foundation. This is what is pointed out by an interviewee as the reason for a rapid increase in plastics recycling by the Tzu Chi Foundation in 2006 (Appendix 3, no. 13).
Tzu Chi is indeed commonly recognized as the pioneer, after successfully developing recycled PET-based textiles in Taiwan (“垃圾分類造永續 環保公益遍全球” 2016; “寶 特瓶也能做衣服” n.d.).
After 2006, government and private recycling efforts increased significantly when the 4-in-1 recycling plan had successfully been established, several regulations restricting plastic containers were implemented, and the Zero Waste Policy was accepted. Tzu Chi’s recycling quantities of plastic, paper and the total, nominally decreased after 2006 (See
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table 13 in Appendix 3 and figure j). Around the same time, market competition for recycled products increased, which can be partly attributed to Tzu Chi’s display of the business potential of recycling technology, and the advances it made in technology.
Recent media reports underline this boom in recycling industry; The Diplomat reported an increase from $840 million USD in 2003 to $2.2 billion USD in 2013 (“Taiwan’s Recycling Boom: A Shining Example for Asia, the World.” 2013). The competition in the market for recyclables subsequently increased, in turn reducing Tzu Chi’s share of paper, plastics and even total recyclables. The Foundation and Da.ai Technology however are reportedly positive about these developments, as it is in line with their aim to increase participation in recycling (Appendix 3, no. 14).
Figure j - Tzu Chi's recycling. Numbers are in kilograms. Note: in 2001, no total number was published, and due to inconsistencies in reporting format this could not be calculated. Source: own. Statistics: Tzu Chi Yearbook (1995-2015)
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Figure k - Tzu Chi's recycling as a percentage of recycling by Taiwanese government agencies. Note: this is a relative measure; government numbers do NOT include Tzu Chi’s recycling. Source: own. Statistics: Tzu Chi Yearbook (1995-2015); EPA (2001-(1995-2015); Lu et al (2006).
At the same time, for community, interviewees and a media report by the Taipei Times (Lin et al., 2014) show that the Tzu Chi Foundation has had more trouble motivating community members to get behind their goals in recent years. Lin et al. (2014) summarize allegations that the Tzu Chi Foundation competes with scavengers, relying on its volunteers, and are in line with an increased trend of resistance described by one interviewees and mentioned during observation and participation at the recycling station.
Over recent years, several collection points in the neighborhood that was studied had to close down over complaints of smell and noise (Appendix 3, no. 15).
Since 2006, the goal has become not so much to increase recycling activities anymore, which is reflected in the numbers of total recycling and paper. Plastic has remained similar. Instead, sorting has improved, and the Tzu Chi Foundation aimed to focus more on education of community members, who regularly visit the plants in tour groups (Appendix 3, no. 16). This education, too, has evolved from procedural instructions about recycling provided at the recycling station, to communication of a message of both resource reduction and recycling since approximately 2010 (Appendix 3, no. 17).
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Tzu Chi's relative recycling
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Foundation’s message and its activities through a series of interactive expositions. One of the volunteers reports that this became normal at other recycling stations as well, in order to inform visitors about the Tzu Chi’s philosophy, activities and environmental and consumption views.The only number that has without fail increased since the Tzu Chi started recycling in 1990 is the amount of volunteers that focus on recycling (See figure l). This depicts quantitatively a quote from one interviewee, who pointed out that for volunteers, recycling has become much less about the work, but more about it being a social activity;
suggesting that actual quantity of recyclables was less important to them (Appendix 3, no.
18).
Figure l - Number of Tzu Chi volunteers active in Taiwanese recycling. Note: numbers before 1997 are unavailable.
Source: own. Statistics: Tzu Chi Yearbook (1997-2015)