The Environmental Protection Administration has conducted the Environmental Implementation Intention Survey, in order to evaluate and understand the following from the public: response to the current everyday environmental quality, satisfaction with the execution of each environmental pollution prevention policy, willingness to comply with those policies, and awareness of these environmental protection issues. These survey results may serve as a reference for future policies.
There are three phases in this survey of 2007. The interviewees of this survey should be at least 20 years old and living in Taiwan. The investigation was by phone interview with members of the public who were selected randomly by means of stratified proportionate sampling. The error margin of samples was 1.42%, within a 95% confidence interval. In the first phase, the survey’s focus was to understand the public’s experiences of everyday environmental quality and their satisfaction with air quality and water quality, was completed during the period from April 18th to May 8th, 2007, with total valid samples of 4,734. In the following one, the key point was to understand the public’s awareness of environmental protection issues. The second phase was from July 2nd to 21st, 2007, with total valid samples of 4,736. In the final phase, the survey focused more on the willingness of the public to comply with the current environmental measures or the ones in the near future. The studied period of the third phase was from October 1st to 20th, 2007, with total valid samples of 4,735.
The summary of first phase investigation: As to the experience of air quality. In the previous year, 56.1% of interviewed public have been bothered by outdoor air pollution, which was mostly the result from vehicles’ emissions. 67.4% of interviewees said that they experienced the same outdoor air quality as the previous year. 38.3% of interviewees said that they had been bothered by bad odor in the previous year. The main sources of bad odor, from this study, were emissions from factories, farm disposals, smells from sewage systems, and odor from trash. 67.2% of interviewees said that there was no problem with air quality in public places.
As to the experience of living conditions quality and safety, 49.0% of interviewees indicated that they were troubled by annoying noises, which mainly came from traffic and neighborhoods, during the previous year. Moreover, Among those people who experienced annoying noises during the previous year; 71.8% of them indicated that the problem still existed, said the noise problem from factories still existed.
As to the experience of drinking water and rivers quality, 67.6% of survey participants said that they would have water filters installed or purchase bottle water for daily drinking consumption, because they believed the quality of tap water was poor. 81.9% of interviewees said that it is necessary for the government to clean river streams with more funds and workforce. Moreover, 41.3% of interviewees agreed that there are major improvements of the government’s tasks to protect river from water pollutions.
As to the issues of environmental sanitation and waste, the public had neural feeling toward environmental sanitation; the figure was scored 3 out of 5 (on a scale of 1 to 5). 85.8% of interviewees said that they were satisfied with the household-disposals pick-up programs, while 11.7% were dissatisfied. The dissatisfaction was due to inconvenient collection schedule or the disposals pick-up truck not showing up on time.
Regarding the experiences of each environmental protection issue, garbage sorting had the highest score, while the self-provided dining ware was lowest. 67% of the interviewed public was satisfied with government’s performance on environmental protection efforts. As to the first priority of government’s next environmental policy, it should be cleanliness of living surroundings, based on public opinions.
The evaluated aspects of second-phase investigation included the public’s attitudes toward overall environment, awareness of environmental protection and related practical manners. Three major parts of this questionnaire were interviewees’ agreement with attitudes toward the overall environment, awareness of environmental protection issues, and putting knowledge into practice. The ranking standard for these three parts ranged from 5 points for the highest place to 1 point for the lowest one. According to the results of this survey, the interviewees’ agreement with attitudes toward overall environment was rated 4.37. Their awareness of environmental protection issues was rated 4.08. Their ranking score of related practical performances was rated 4.01. From the numbers stated above, we could conclude that the public had good overall environmental attitude and plenty of environmental protection knowledge. However, the publics’ practical performance of environmental protection was not as good as the other two issues.
From the gender point of view, male interviewees earned higher score (4.10) in knowledge than their female counterparts did, whose score was 4.05. However, the female respondents had better attitude toward overall environment; the scores were 4.40 and 4.34 for female and male respectively. As to the concern of practical actions, male interviewees’ average score was much worse than females’; the scores were 3.88 and 4.13 for male and female, respectively.
From the age point of view, the interviewees aged 40 to 49 had the highest rating in appropriateness in attitude toward the environment, with a score of 4.41. The degrees of understanding environmental protection concerns descended while the age increased. All rankings scored higher than 4 except for the age group above 60; the score was 3.58. However, the evaluated scores of practical performance increased as the age increased; the scores for age groups under 40 were all less than 4.
From the education point of view, the interviewees with higher education had better and more correct attitudes and conceptions toward environmental protection issues. More specifically, interviewees had scores of more than 4.2 for appropriateness attitude. But in the issue of related knowledge, all groups’ scores were above 4 except for the group, whose members’ highest education was junior high school or under. However, as to the score of practical performances, the higher education the groups, the lower scores they had. From the career point of view, the interviewees who served in the army, government, schools or were white-collar workers had higher evaluation than ones in other careers regarding these 3 parts of study; agreement with the living environment, awareness of environmental protection, and practical behaviors toward related concepts. Moreover, students had the most abundant knowledge on the subject of environmental protection, but they did not put it into practice very well.
From the location point of view, as to agreement with the living environment, the score 4.33 in central Taiwan was the lowest; the other areas were with scores between 4.38 and 4.39. Regarding the rating of related knowledge, respondents who lived in northern Taiwan obtained highest score (4.14), those in the south were in the second place with 4.05, while interviewees in the eastern area had the lowest scores, only 3.97. About the practical actions issue, the score 4.06 was the highest score gained by the interviewees living in the eastern area, while 3.96 was the lowest one for those persons who lived in central Taiwan. Overall, respondents who lived in central Taiwan earned the lowest scores in these 3 parts of this study, television was the major channel for the public to get knowledge regarding environmental protection issues, which accounts for 84.2%.
Based on the results of the third-phase investigation, for the EPA’s 19 executed policies, the average rate of awareness was 66.5%. The rates of awareness of the EPA’s executed policies related to daily life were higher, such as “Restrictions on using plastic bags and one-time-use dining ware (95.1%)”. The average rate of agreement with the EPA’s 19 executed policies was 95.4%. For example “Eradicating dengue-carrying mosquitoes” was 99.5%. If interviewees better understand the specific executed policies, the rates of agreement with those policies would be higher. Oppositely, if interviewees did not know the policies, they probably would say “no opinion” on them. In conclusion, the greater public awareness of the EPA’s executed policies, the more help for the EPA gets in practicing. 80.2% of interviewed public showed their support for the EPA’s 9 planning policies. The support rates were under 90% for two policies, “Collecting water pollution prevention fee (80.6%),” and “Limitations or forbiddances on using one-time-use products (89.5%).” The other support rates of planning policies were all above 91%. From public points of view, 80.2% of interviewees said they did try their best to comply with the EPA’s policies; the rate of females was 88.3%, and rate of males was 77.2%. Overall, in terms of agreement with the EPA’s executed policies or planning policies and compliance with the EPA’s policies, rates were much higher for female interviewees than male interviewees. 57.8% of interviewees were satisfied with EPA’s performance on implementation of policies in this most recent year. And from the survey results of the two most recent years, over half of interviewees said the EPA had excellent performance on its policies. According to public opinions, improvement of air quality should be the first priority of the EPA.
