Residents have until Jan. 1 next year to learn how to sort household waste into three streams, as the nation's unprecedented compulsory recycling scheme will go into effect then, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
To help encourage residents to recycle more of their household waste, a compulsory recycling scheme will be implemented in nine urban jurisdictions, including Taipei City, Kaohsiung City, Keelung City, Hsinchu City, Taichung City, Chiayi City, and Tainan City.
"Under the new scheme, household waste must be clearly sorted into recyclable materials, food scraps and safe mixed trash," Yang Ching-shi (
Beginning next year, sanitation workers in affected jurisdictions will randomly inspect trash bags thrown out by residents, officials said. In first few months, residents who fail to properly sort their household waste into the three streams will be encouraged to either to correct the problem on site or bring trash bags home.
"Residents should gradually get used to the scheme. We will conduct surveys for the next two years and we hope to attain the support of more than 70 percent of residents," Yang said.
However, Yang said, those who deliberately or persistently continue to ignore the new rules could face fines between NT$1,200 and NT$6,000, according to the Waste Disposal Act.
Last year the nation's households generated 7.54 million tonnes of waste, but only recycled 17.9 percent of it. Yang said that the new scheme might significantly increase the rate of recycling to roughly 25 percent by 2007.
"In terms of the total amount of household waste that makes it to the incinerator, our goal is to decrease it by 25 percent by 2007," Yang said.
Yang said a voluntary recycling scheme might be launched on the county level for Taipei County, Chiayi County, Tainan County and Kaohsiung County. EPA officials said that increased recycling would have economic benefits for the relevant governments.
Commenting on the agency's initiative, environmental groups said that it makes sense to encourage people not to throw away recyclable materials because incinerators would become overburdened. However, the Green Cit-izens' Action Alliance said the EPA might need to offer more incentives in order to get people to adhere to the new regulations.
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