The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), in an effort to increase the recycling rate of abandoned lead-acid rechargeable batteries, will next week launch a three-month inspection project for a comprehensive audit, officials said yesterday.
Last Sunday, a locally registered fishing boat attempted to ship 30 tonnes of recycled lead-acid rechargeable batteries to China illegally, but was apprehended in port by the Coast Guard Administration.
Environmentalists attributed this type of smuggling to the nation's lax recycling regulations, saying the government should prevent Taiwanese from being accomplices in smuggling pollutants to developing countries.
EPA officials said yesterday that the seized rechargeable batteries had not been recycled by any authorized recycling company.
"We recycle only about 60 percent of 50,000 used lead-acid rechargeable batteries," Yu Yung-chiech (
This implies that illegal plants annually process close to 20,000 tonnes of these batteries to refine valuable lead. The unit price for lead is about NT$16 per kilogram.
Yu said that the EPA will launch a strict three-month inspection tour on Monday in order to audit the amount of recycled rechargeable batteries and trace all abandoned ones.
He said that those who illegally recycle rechargeable batteries would face fines of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000.
EPA officials said that the process used at the illegal plants allow leakage of hazardous acid solvents from the used batteries into the ground.
EPA Deputy Administrator Chang Chu-en (張祖恩) said yesterday it is possible that roughly 3,000 tonnes of acid solvents, which contain heavy metals, including lead and chromium, has been discharged into the environment.
Taiwan did not recycle used lead-acid rechargeable batteries until 1990. To further promote the recycling effort, the EPA in 1997 began to reward retailers with NT$1.75 for every kilogram of rechargeable batteries they recycled.
However, environmentalists said, the EPA has been reluctant to solve problems pertaining to the insufficient number of processing plants.
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