Taiwan Quick Take: Campaign ahead of schedule

The government's "garbage classification" campaign has achieved its initial goal of "cutting trash volume by 25 percent in three years" ahead of schedule, an environmental protection official said yesterday. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) launched a compulsory waste classification campaign in 2004 with the aim of reducing the country's overall garbage volume by 25 percent by next year. "At the end of May this year, the amount of recycled garbage was 836,200 tonnes, with the recycling rate reaching 26.13 percent," said Sung Yi-jen (宋以仁), a division chief with the EPA's Waste Management Department. The recycling rate marked an increase of 8.24 percentage points over the figure of 17.89 percent recorded in 2003, Sung said, adding that the figures indicate that the country's waste volume has been reduced by 25 percent through recyling, a goal that was originally set for completion next year.