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Premier supports cities and counties sharing incinerators

Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that the policy of having one incinerator per city or county should be re-examined with a view to having some cities and counties share facilities.

Hsieh issued the instruction after listening to reports by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).

EPA officials reported that the campaign to reduce the volume of garbage has borne fruit, greatly reducing the waste transported daily to a little over 16,000 tonnes last year from more than 24,000 tonnes in 1996.

This represented a reduction in the average amount of garbage produced per person per day from 1.14kg to 0.71kg, they said.

The officials estimated that disposal costs would be reduced by around NT$600 million (US$19.04 million) this year from the previous year.

Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) yesterday suggested that the policy of one incinerator per city and county be reviewed, and Hsieh said that because of the pleasing results of the garbage-reduction campaign, some incinerators under construction may not end up having enough garbage to process, leaving them redundant.

The current incinerator policy was implemented by the previous Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, the premier said.

Hsieh also suggested promoting the reduction of emissions from vehicles as well as championing low-polluting vehicles to help improve air quality.

In addition, the premier said there were still 12 cities and counties without an adequate sewage system, an issue that needed to be addressed given that such infrastructure was a major indicator of a nation's development.
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