The Cabinet will convene a national conference on Taiwan's waste management policy so the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and anti-incinerator lobby can reach an agreement over the recent incinerator row.
At a public hearing held yesterday at the Legislative Yuan, lawmakers said they were very tired of communicating with the EPA, which stubbornly sticks to its incineration policy without considering social changes.
"The amount of waste is decreasing and the recycling rate is increasing. What the EPA needs now is the courage to face the situation," said DPP Legislator Eugene Jao (趙永清).
EPA Administrator Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said it was necessary to have at least one incinerator for each jurisdiction to avoid long-distance waste transportation.
Representatives of local authorities, however, said at the public hearing that if the EPA sticks to the idea, tax payers' money would be wasted.
Hsinchu County Councilor Lin Wei-chou (
"Hsinchu City has an incinerator with has a daily capacity of 900 tonnes. But now the EPA approves the NT$2.2 billion project to build another, which is located only 3km away in Hsinchu County," Lin said.
According to Lin, the amount of waste produced daily by the two jurisdictions is about 750 tonnes.
Taitung City Mayor Lai Kuen-cheng (賴坤成) argued that environmental pollution created by the incinerator would hamper the county from developing tourism.
An incinerator with a capacity of 300 tonnes per day is under construction in Taitung.
Yunling County Councilor Yin Lin-in (
"Building an incinerator at a site, where is just 1.8km from an area earmarked for the construction of a new water-treatment plant, is risking residents' lives," Yin said.
DPP Legislator Su Chih-fen (
The EPA estimated that the originally planned 36 incinerators would have been capable of burning 30,400 tonnes of waste per day by the end of next year.
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