Urban waste recycling in Taiwan

The urban waste recycling program in Taiwan is discussed. During the past few years, the quantity of urban waste generated in Taiwan has greatly increased, about 8–10% per year. Approx., 50 wt.% or more of the waste items in urban waste are found to be valuable and worth recycling. Recycling is of much significance to Taiwan because of a lack of natural resources. Hence, ROC EPA has made many efforts to promote an urban waste recycling program, called the “Hsi-Fu Recycling Project”. (This project now has a new name called “Urban Waste Recovery and Its Monitoring Project”.) The legal backing of this recycling project is Article 10.1 of the “(Solid) Waste Disposal Act”, which was revised and promulgated in November 1988. “The product life cycle cost” and “beneficiary pays and polluter pays” are the two important basic concepts incorporated in this Article. Through the promotion of the “Hsi-Fu Recycling Project”, these two fundamental concepts are being practiced in Taiwan for some items in urban waste. Currently, only ten out of the 17 waste items under the “Hsi-Fu Recycling Project” are regulated by ROC EPA. While this waste recycling project is in progress, many problems have occurred. These problems have caused many impacts on the public, industries, and government authorities. To proclaim a great success in this waste recycling project, these problems must first be solved.