Walk into Guanghua computer market and you can see all the CDs, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs stacked up on the shelves. Each disc costs just NT$6 to NT$7, so they're not only useful but cheap and everyone seems to be buying them by the dozen.
Taiwan is the biggest producer of compact discs in the world, producing 5.5 billion a year, with 4.7 billion for the export market and 800 million for the local market. In Taiwan, the consumption rate of CDs is growing at a rate of 30 percent a year. This means that next year, the sale of discs will easily reach 1 billion.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Whether it's production or consumption, Taiwan is undoubtedly the kingdom of compact discs, but that can also mean a lot of waste. According to statistics from the Recycling Fund Management Board (
"I have many old game discs I want to throw away. I wonder if there are any recycling collection places I can go to?" "Are used CDs recyclable?" "If I give them to the guys from the garbage trucks, will they recycle for me?"
Such kind of e-mail or phone inquires to the EPA and to local government are numerous, according to an EPA official who declined to be named. She said information about recycling discarded CDs was the most requested item of information at the EPA. Seven out of 10 e-mail messages to the EPA were about recycling waste CDs, she said.
A CD made of polycarbonate (a kind of plastic), contains heavy metals such as gold, silver, bronze on the data side, and is also covered by ink and gel coatings on the design side. If discs are burned in an incinerator there will be dioxin pollutants as a result. And if the CDs are just buried or put together with other waste, they will take decades to degrade.
The harm that discarded CDs can do to the environment is something the EPA knows only too well.
Polytech Corp (
But there have been advances in recycling. In the early 1990s, the Bayer Group in Germany adopted a recycling method using chemical solvents to separate the metal and plastic parts of the discs. This method is widely used in Europe.
According to Chuang, the method used by Polytech is different, using the force of water to sort the different metal parts from the disc, a method that is similar to that used to wash sand from gold. It is therefore a physical method instead of a chemical one, Chuang said. One of the reasons the EPA granted a license to Polytech, he said, was because it avoided the use of solvents that could harm the environment.
According to the EPA, two more recycling companies having applied for licenses to be able to legally process used CDs. But what can be made from recycled discs?
Ritek Corporation (
According to Eric Ai (
The EPA is scheduled to announce in July that CDs will be recyclable items and will set up a recycling system. This means you will be able to give waste discs to garbage truck workers at certain recycling points, or leave them at designated computer stores. But because of the election and delays in policy-assessment work there are doubts that the scheme will be implemented on time, the EPA official said.
Solely from a business point-of-view, Chuang from Polytech, is waiting impatiently for the implementation of the new government policy. "We need more sources for waste CDs," he said.
Currently, 60 percent of Polytech's discarded CDs are from manufacturers such as Ritek. Discarded household CDs account for less than 40 percent. "If people start to recycle discs, it will definitely be positive for our business. In future we plan to use 80 percent household waste discs and 20 percent from manufacturers," Chuang said. "This way, it will encourage more CD recycling businesses to start up. We welcome more competitors because this is the kind of business where you can make money and do good things for the environment. Why not?"
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