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?"
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist