In 1999, when the Environmental Protection Administration began a program to raise the nation's low recycling rate for used batteries, the total amount of discarded was 3,500 tonnes -- of which only 29 tonnes were recycled.
Since then, the nation hasn't sat idly by and mass collection programs are now commonplace throughout the country.
Sadly, the nation's ever-increasing reliance on battery powered devices has meant that reducing the number of discarded batteries -- while at the same time increasing the amount recycled -- has been thwarted by increasing consumer usage and, some feel, inadequate education.
"The number of mobile phones in use today has increased almost tenfold over the past four to five years, which of course had led to an equal, if not greater, increase in the number of discarded batteries," said battery collection agent Michael Lee (李志強). "If something is not done about it Taiwan could be looking at a grim future with widespread groundwater contamination and other problems caused by toxins."
Based on the revenue collected through taxes levied on battery manufacturers, which are added for recycling purposes, the amount of spent batteries stood at roughly 10,000 tonnes last year. Of this only 1,017 tonnes, or less than 15 percent, was collected and exported for processing in France or the US, where all of Taiwan's used batteries are currently sent for recycling.
The remaining 8,500-plus tonnes were dumped in landfills or incinerated in organic waste incineration plants, where dioxins and other toxic wastes seeped into groundwater sources and returned to earth in the form of acid rain.
While the government plans to increase the amount of recycled batteries to 2,000 tonnes this year, non-recycling of spent batteries in Taiwan has become so great an environmental problem that the American Chamber of Commerce included the issue in this year's Taiwan White Paper. The report made recommendations that included raising citizen awareness, rethinking the existing recycling model and the need to encourage an overall reduction in battery usage.
One major factor behind Taiwan's overwhelming cache of spent batteries is its heavy reliance on cheap zinc-carbon batteries. Taiwan might consider itself a developed country, but when it comes to zinc carbon battery expenditure it ranks alongside China as one of the world's most prolific users.
A staggering 65 percent of the batteries used by the nation's gadget hungry masses are of the zinc carbon type, which, though cheaper, have a shorter life span and are more harmful to the environment than alkaline batteries. This number comes frighteningly close to China's 75 percent reliance on zinc-carbon batteries and is a far cry from those of other developed Asian regions such as South Korea and Hong Kong, where zinc-carbon batteries account for no more than 25 percent of the total number of batteries used.
"In the US and Britain, the rates of alkaline battery usage are at almost 90 percent and in terms of developed countries you'd expect to see Taiwan amongst them," said Andrew Houlberg, General Manager of Gillette Taiwan. "But instead [Taiwan] looks almost like China."
Although not wanting to apportion the blame on any one agency, Houlberg, whose company owns Duracell, feels the nation's over use of zinc-carbon batteries is related to the way in which advertising campaigns are closely intertwined with Asian ideals, where face is more important than the facts.
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