New trash rules for Taipei on May 7, despite protests

New rules * No more garbage collection on Wednesdays as of May 7. * New recyclable sorting and bagging rules will also go into effect. * Flattenable recyclables (paper, old clothes, clean plastic bags) will be collected Mondays and Fridays. * Cubic recyclables (styrofoam, plastic, glass bottles, metals, small appliances, batteries) will be collected on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. * Pick-up routes have been streamlined, eliminating about 220 collection sites.

Taipei City's Environmental Protection Bureau announced on Tuesday that its no-Wednesday-garbage collection program, which has been operating on a trial basis since mid-March, will become official as of May 7.

The bureau announced on Tues-day that the start a "two-day off" garbage collection program (Sundays and Wednesdays) next month will lead to the expansion of garbage recycling services as well as new sorting and bagging rules.

The new garbage-recycling regulations divide recyclables into two categories -- flattenable recyclables and cubic recyclables.

Flattenable recyclables include paper, old clothes and clean plastic bags which are to be collected Mondays and Fridays. Cubic recyclables -- which include styrofoam, plastic, glass bottles, metals, small household appliances, dry-cell batteries and others, will be collected on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Garbage-collection times and routes will also be changed as some 4,200 collection sites will be reduced by around 220 sites through streamlining and integration of some routes.

Detailed information on the new garbage sorting and bagging rules, trash-collection times and routes is available on the bureau's Web site (www.epb.taipei.gov.tw).

However, to cope with demands for "urgent dumping needs" on Wednesdays, 57 collection sites around the city will be open. The addresses of these locations are available on the Web site as well.

City officials said the reduction of the collection sites would make more efficient use of garbage trucks and staff.

"Part of the reason the bureau is reducing garbage collection times is that it is short of environment-cleaning staff due to the reduction in budgets. It also reflects the reduction in the city's waste volume since the implementation of the per-bag trash-collection fee policy," an official surnamed Yang said yesterday.

However, the city government's unilateral decision to alter its garbage collection program drew renewed criticism from the Taipei City Council.

City councilors from across the party lines have denounced the bureau's decision as thoughtless and inconvenient.

Although the no-Wednesday collection program has been operating since March 15, the council has yet to approve it and the dispute between the city government and council heated up yesterday.

City councilors yesterday claimed that the Environmental Protection Bureau did not consult with the council beforehand.

At yesterday's council meeting, the DDP's Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰) and the New Party's Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) both criticized the bureau's new policy as cursory and inconvenient.

They said the bureau had not taken the proper supplementary measures before enacting its new policy.

Lee said if the bureau holds to its hardline stance to carry out the policy, the city council will boycott all the bureau's bills in the next legislative session.

"I will propose cutting one-fifth of the bureau's garbage cleaning budgets in the next legislative session, since they have cut the garbage collection days from six to five," Lee said.