Zero Waste for Mazu: Local Sustainability Action｜Rotary Club of Taipei Sustainable Impact 2024-2026 Report

1 · Background and Need

The Dajia Jenn Lann Temple Mazu pilgrimage is one of the largest religious folk events in Taiwan. In 2025, an estimated nearly 4 million participants took part, generating NT$6 to 8 billion in economic output, but the same period also produced 150 to 180 tonnes of waste. After the nine-day, eight-night festival, the single-use paper bowls, paper cups, disposable chopsticks, plastic bottles, and discarded blessing food piled up along the route became a point of tension between the space of faith and the local environment.

"Should the compassion of faith also be transformed into responsibility toward the land?" This question became the starting point of the "Zero Waste for Mazu" project. Led by the Club's proposing member Lisa, the project combines three core methods: circular economy design, behavior change strategy, and cross-site coordination, bringing the concept of zero waste into a site of faith with millions of participants, so that religious culture and sustainability practice can proceed side by side.

2 · Project Goals and Implementation Methods

Put the zero-waste concept into practice along the largest meal- and snack-distribution flows of the Dajia pilgrimage.
Build a circular service module that is repeatable, quantifiable, and replicable by other temples.
Through behavior design (not preaching), enable worshippers, vendors, and temple staff to participate voluntarily.
Combine the Sustainable Practices volunteer team with local friendly vendors to form a cross-sector collaboration network.
Record each implementation as concrete data and case samples, serving as the basis for the next round of expansion.

Action	Content	Roles Involved
Reusable tableware borrow-and-return station	Set up a borrow-and-return mechanism for reusable tableware to replace single-use items	Volunteer team · Vendors
Tableware cleaning station	Design an on-site washing flow so reusable tableware returns immediately to the next user	Volunteer team · Temple
Bring-your-own tableware incentive	Use rewards and guidance to raise the proportion of worshippers bringing their own tableware	Volunteer team
Coordinating dishwashing space with temples along the route	Negotiate with temples along the Dajia pilgrimage route to provide water and space for dishwashing	Proposer · Temples
Designing a waste-reduction participation game	Turn sorting and recycling into interactive on-site participation design, lowering the barrier to participation	Volunteer team
Connecting Dajia local friendly vendors	Build a network of local friendly vendors to extend the circular model beyond a single event	Proposer · Business district

Note: After completing its first validation at the Xingang Lunzi snack station on April 20, 2026, the project was fully implemented along the Dajia Jenn Lann Temple route during the 2026 Mazu pilgrimage.

Location

Along the Dajia Jenn Lann Temple route · Xingang Fengtian Temple snack station

Period

Around the 2026 pilgrimage

Progress

Xingang validation and the 2026 Dajia pilgrimage both completed

Methodology

Circular design + behavior change + cross-site coordination

3 · Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries: Pilgrimage worshippers, vendors along the route, temple staff, and environmental volunteer teams.
Indirect beneficiaries: Local residents of Dajia and towns along the route, and other temples and folk event organizers that will follow this model in the future.

First validation in Xingang on April 20, 2026: over 2,800 instances of meal collection and sorted recycling.

4 · Performance Evaluation Methods

This project designs its indicators on the principles of being "quantifiable, trackable, and comparable." The first case in Xingang on April 20, 2026, validated the operability of the following indicators:

Evaluation Item	Quantitative Indicator	Xingang Result, 2026.04.20
Total recovery volume	Total waste weight statistics per event	194.22 kg
Recycling and reuse rate	Recyclables (including food waste) as a proportion of total waste	123.75 kg / 63.7%
Scale of participation	Number of meal-collection and sorted-recycling instances	About 2,800
Detailed sorting tracking	Breakdown by metal cans / plastic bottles / glass bottles / paper bowls / food waste / general waste	6 categories fully recorded
Behavior change indicator	Proportion of people bringing their own tableware to collect meals	First baseline measurement completed
Collaboration invitations	Proactive contact from local units / number of follow-up invitations	The Xingang local volunteer team proactively invited a return next year

Results from the 2026 Dajia Pilgrimage

During the 2026 Dajia Mazu pilgrimage, the project was fully implemented along the Jenn Lann Temple route, in cooperation with the Resource Circulation Administration of the Ministry of Environment (advising agency) and Dajia Jenn Lann Temple:

Item	Content	Result
Volunteer mobilization	Volunteers from across Taiwan handled station guidance, logistics, and environmental education	150 volunteer shifts
Friendly vendors	Local Dajia vendors offered an NT$5 discount for bringing your own tableware or bag	30 vendors
Temple dishwashing stations	Temples along the route opened their sinks, solving the "nowhere to wash" pain point	80 temples
Reusable tableware system	1,000 personal rental sets + 5,000 sets washed at the Jenn Lann Temple snack station	6,000 sets
Citizen scientists	Volunteers recorded waste types, sorting accuracy, and behavior data in real time along the route	70+ people · 313 data entries
Survey	Worshipper waste-reduction awareness survey (4.68 / 5 agreed pilgrimage waste burdens the environment)	111 valid responses
LINE "Pilgrimage Treasure Hunt"	Digital eco fortune sticks, waste-reduction quiz, and scan-to-earn points for bringing your own tableware	Gamified waste reduction

Complete data and charts for the Xingang case are in Case Study: Zero Waste for Mazu.

5 · Potential Lasting Impact

This project does not treat a single event as the endpoint but takes "building a replicable module" as its long-term goal. Expected outcomes:

Site expansion: From Dajia to other pilgrimage routes, from a single temple to cross-temple linkage, turning the circular model into a standard practice that can be emulated.
Behavior change: Through repeated on-site participation, turning bring-your-own tableware and voluntary sorting from "the exception" into "the everyday."
Industry driver: Encouraging local vendors to transform into friendly supply chains and offer reusable tableware rental services.
Cultural reshaping: Making the site of faith a showcase for sustainability action, connecting "honoring Mazu" with "honoring the land."
Policy recommendation: Compiling citizen-scientist data and field experience into a "Religious Sustainability Guidelines" white paper, giving all of Taiwan's ten-thousand-plus temples a reference path, and proposing waste-reduction policy recommendations for religious folk events to local governments, the Ministry of Culture, and the Environmental Protection Administration.

6 · Alignment with Rotary's Four Priorities

Increase Our Impact

Moving "zero waste" from a concept inside corporate ESG reports into a religious folk setting with millions of participants, so the impact is seen together by worshippers, temples, vendors, and the media.

Expand Our Reach

The project received feature coverage from TVBS, Gala Television, and Da Ai TV, and reached an international audience through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), bringing the "religious sustainability" narrative onto the global stage. The 2026 Dajia pilgrimage linked 80 temples and 30 local friendly vendors along the route, and built a corporate sponsorship network through zeczec crowdfunding.

Enhance Participant Engagement

Rather than relying solely on the labor of environmental volunteers for cleanup, the project designs interactive on-site waste-reduction games and incentive mechanisms, turning worshippers from passive participants into active practitioners.

Increase Our Ability to Adapt

By recording each implementation as concrete data and case samples (total weight, sorting breakdowns, behavior change indicators), the project can be replicated, improved, and continued across different sites and scales.