Promoting cleaner production with innovative partnership programs in Taiwan

Internal and external barriers to promoting cleaner production in small and medium enterprises in the Asian Pacific Region were outlined at the UNEP Fourth High Level Seminar on Cleaner Production (CP) held 23–26 September 1996 in Oxford. Most countries are striving to overcome the CP promotion barriers while implementing innovative projects. This study discusses three barriers to voluntary compliance as well as three innovative CP projects in Taiwan. The three barriers of voluntary compliance in Taiwan include rigid punitive provisions in environmental laws, a lack of size-differentiated requirements for small and medium sources, and scientifically and economically unsound discharge limitations. The methodology of innovative CP projects ranges from conflict to consensus, piecemeal to holistic, and inflexibility to modification. Many countries have initiated innovative projects by implementing a partnership program between industry and government. This study illustrates three innovative CP projects in Taiwan: CP benchmarks, waste exchange, as well as a joint industrial waste treatment and recovery system. CP benchmark project established a waste generation index (WGI), energy consumption index (ECI), and hazard index (HZI) for CP progress measures and product design. The waste exchange project actively facilitates waste recycling with an active manner. Joint industrial waste treatment and the recovery system allows treatment of industrial wastes at a lower cost and higher efficiency than previously. As generally expected, the on-going CP benchmark project in Taiwan will yield significant results, thereby lessening the impact of waste exchange and waste treatment projects.