Fewer diseased piggies go to market: EPA

"The GPS systems are linked directly to the EPA's monitoring center and track any irregular routes that the vehicles take so that those who dispose of waste illegally can be caught."

Ho Soong-chin, Solid Waste Control Bureau director-general

Since the mandated installation of global positioning systems (GPS) on all trucks that ferry harmful waste to disposal grounds, the amount of diseased pig meat properly incinerated has increased by 700 percent, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.

GPS units were installed on all such trucks in 2006 and have drastically cut the amount of unfit pig meat illegally turned into sausages or fish meal, the administration told a press conference.

In view of the success of the surveillance measure, the administration announced that it had rented 40 Ultra Mobile Personal Computers (UMPC) to install in the vehicles of its inspectors and environmental protection police to bolster efforts.

The UMPCs will bolster the administration's efforts to track harmful waste, Solid Waste Control Bureau-Director General Ho Soong-chin (何舜琴) said.

Since 2006, GPS units are installed in the waste disposal vehicles of all businesses whose operations generate any substance defined as harmful to the environment or human health, including chemicals, biohazards and spoiled or diseased meat, she said.

"The GPS units are linked directly to the EPA's monitoring center and track any irregular routes that the vehicles take so that those who dispose of waste illegally can be caught by the administration," she said.

Since the installation of GPS, the amount of diseased pig meat processed by government-owned incinerators has increased by at least 40,000 tonnes per year, she said.

The rise clearly indicates that "people are much more compliant with the law since the surveillance system was implemented," Ho said.

Ho said the administration had found flaws with the system, however. The EPA tracks the trucks at its headquarters and then sends inspectors or environmental protection police to the site of suspected illegal dumping. The gap in time sometimes is long enough for the dumpers to have left the scene, depriving the administration of key evidence.

By installing UMPCs in the vehicles of inspectors and police, the EPA hopes to catch more dumpers red-handed.

"The UMPCs will transform an inspector's car into a mobile EPA monitoring center," she explained. "In addition, the PCs are capable of mapping out detailed driving routes to arrive at the violator's location so that even less time is lost."

The administration is renting the PCs for NT$40,000 per unit per year. If the systems prove effective in catching illegal dumpers, the agency may purchase them, she said.

Forty UMPCs are ready to hit the road on Saturday, Ho said, adding that the vehicles will be placed at EPA subagencies across the country.