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More controversy over incinerators

"A price war is expected among public waste incinerators desperately lacking garbage to burn."

Chen Chien-chih, of the Green Citizen's Action Alliance

Incinerators might be popular with Taiwan's waste managers but there is little love lost for them among residents, environmentalists and legislators.

Yesterday representatives of all three groups took the opportunity of a public forum organized by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to criticize the EPA's enthusiasm for building incinerators and burning waste.

Originally the EPA planned to build 36 incinerators by 2003 intended to handle 90 percent of Taiwan's domestic waste. The building program is behindhand, but that might be just as well since the unexpected success of recycling schemes has reduced waste volumes to the extent that even if nine of the incinerators were cancelled, there might still not be enough waste to keep the remaining 27 operating economically.

"Because of the shortage of household waste, some industrial waste has been treated in public incinerators already. The situation might become worse in the future as more waste will be recycled," said Mary Chen (陳曼麗), chairwoman of the Homemakers' Union and Foundation.

Environmentalists were quick to point out that incinerators meant for the disposal of domestic waste were not necessarily suitable for the disposal of industrial waste, which tends to produce much larger volumes of more toxic by-products.

Nevertheless, according to Wu Tien-chi (吳天基), director-general of the EPA's Bureau of Incinerator Engineering, the administration would only cut incinerator numbers by no more than nine, reducing total capacity from 30,400 tonnes of household waste per day to 25,400 tonnes.

If operated at 85 percent of daily capacity, EPA officials said, all 27 incinerators could treat 21,000 tonnes of waste a day. But in 2003, however, Taiwan daily generated only 18,000 tonnes of household waste.

Activists of the Green Citizens' Action Alliance argued that the lack of trustworthy inspection on the operation of incinerators might result in burning industrial waste inappropriately.

"Worse, in the future, a price war is expected among public waste incinerators desperately lacking garbage to burn," Chen Chien-chih (陳建志), convener of the organization's garbage policy team, told the Taipei Times.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) said the EPA was reluctant to break contracts with sub-constructors in order to avoid problems about compensation and possible lawsuits.

"EPA officials know quite well how to manage waste problems but they refuse to tackle them effectively," Su said.

Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), a professor of public health at National Taiwan University, said the EPA needed to adjust incinerator-related policies based on scientific evaluation.

"Health risk assessment, precise prediction of the amount of household waste, and a possible mechanism of regional collaborative operation of waste treatment facilities all need to be addressed more by the EPA," Chan said.
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