Burning money at an incinerator, Hsieh said, doesn't provide the proper respect to ghosts because of its unclean connotations.
"People with a more traditional perspective still believe that for the ritual to be effective, they must burn money directly," said Wu Yung-meng (吳永猛), the Taoist priest who performed the purification rituals at all three incinerators.
Wu says it will take a tectonic shift in believers' attitudes and behavior before the amount of paper money burned is reduced.
"People were reluctant to use banks when they first opened," he said. "But gradually, as depositing money in banks became more common, people stopped questioning the practice and accepted it as a matter of habit."
And though Wu still oversees extravagant rituals that involve burning ghost money at Taipei's Paoan Temple (保安宮), he agrees that residents must reduce the amount of money they burn during Ghost Month and year round.
"This is a fundamental part of our culture," he said. "No matter what religious denomination, we ... see burning paper money as a way of respecting gods, ghosts and ancestors. So it will take a long time for people to change their habits."
Still, the government's policy seems to be making some headway. The amount of paper burned at the three incinerators in Neihu, Mucha and Beitou has increased from 83 tonnes in 2000, when the program was first introduced, to 636 tonnes last year.
In an alley off Roosevelt Road in Taipei, a borough leader oversees a group of volunteers who stuff paper money into the large paper bags. A woman sitting at a table collects donations - as much or as little as the worshipper wants to give - and jots down the name of people in a red book. At the end of the day, a truck from the Mucha incinerator will come by and pick up the bags.
"We've filled over 200 red bags," said a woman working at the table. When asked if worshipers are concerned that this method isn't devotional enough to please the ghosts, she says that she hadn't considered the issue before.
"We young people don't worry about those things," she said. "That's an issue that the older generation is concerned about."
For Huang Lu, it is a cause for celebration that members of the younger, more environmentally aware generation are unconcerned about strictly adhering to ritual.
"We think that appealing to students is most effective," she said. She added that this year alone authorities have spoken to 180,000 students about alternatives to burning money. "We hope that they will then go home and tell their parents."
Collecting and burning paper money at incinerators is part of a larger plan by the city government to gradually reduce and then eliminate the burning of paper money on festival days, and throughout the year.
"Like paper money, our ultimate goal is for residents to also stop burning incense," Lu said. "Putting your hands together [in prayer] is enough for the gods. The most important thing when worshipping is your sincerity. The gods will sense that."
Many temples throughout the capital have already jumped on the environmental bandwagon.
"Hsingtien Temple (行天宮) and Longshan Temple (龍山寺) no longer provide braziers to burn paper money," Huang Lu said.
Wu agreed that cutting down on burning ghost money is a sensible policy. "After all," he said, "people are the ones who created gods and ghosts, ... so there are other ways we can show our sincerity."
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