EPA says it's time to clean house

Environmental Protection Admin-istration (EPA) officials are urging residents to carefully sort their garbage in the run-up to Chinese New Year in an effort to promote recycling.

"National Cleanup Week," an annual project promoted by the EPA before the lunar new year, begins today and lasts through Feb. 10.

Chinese New Year is a time when families traditionally do spring cleaning and replace old furniture and other items to welcome change and to ward off bad luck. The first day of the lunar new year is Feb. 12.

Throughout the country, local governments and environmental volunteers have been gearing up for the week's events.

Environmental volunteers in Tainan City gathered in front of city hall yesterday and vowed to carry out cleaning work in seven communities during the week.

The Taipei County Government plans to carry out stricter environmental inspection according to its environmental resolutions.

In Pingtung, Wednesday will be Beautiful Pingtung Environmental Cleaning Day, where officials and residents plan to hit the streets with their dustpans.

In Kaohsiung, some 2,500 volunteers will participate in the cleanup work in communities this week.

Tomorrow an environmental task force will inspect all Kaohsiung City Government agencies to see if they are setting a good example for residents when it comes to recycling and other environmental issues.

Although garbage collection procedures vary from county to county, officials said that all residents are encouraged to also tidy up the area within 4m of their home.

This year, EPA officials are calling on residents to be diligent in their recycling.

"If household garbage sorting is done well and recycling is promoted successfully, the amount of waste [in landfills] will be dramatically reduced," administration officials said.

Anticipating the piles of household garbage, including furniture, that typically plague Taipei's streets after people do their spring cleaning, the EPA said that leaving furniture, TV sets, refrigerators and other large items on the streets is prohibited.

Officials said that residents in Taipei are encouraged to call recycling hotlines to arrange for the free collection of large-scale waste, such as newspapers, magazines, aluminum cans and other recyclable items.

The service is limited to households and is not available for businesses.

Officials told the Taipei Times yesterday that residents should call the service as early as possible as they expect a heavy workload.

They also asked that residents wrap up broken glass, blades and knives before throwing them out for safety reasons.

EPA officials said that there will be no garbage collection from Feb. 12 to Feb. 14 because of the holiday.