Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) challenger Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday debated the city’s garbage bag fee policy after Su proposed scrapping the fee if he was elected.
Discussing his campaign platform and municipal policies on Plurk, an online microblogging site that has become a popular campaign tool for local politicians, Su proposed canceling the “per bag trash collection fee” policy as household garbage volume in the city has been in decline.
“I am not against the policy, but I think we should stop charging the garbage bag fee when household garbage volume has successfully been decreased to a certain point,” Su said.
Hau, a former Environmental Protection Administration minister, however, defended the effectiveness of the policy on reducing the amount of garbage in the city and said Su was just trying to win over voters with his proposal.
“Mr Su has failed to understand that the policy is the key factor behind the reduction in the amount of garbage in Taipei. Opposing the policy is unbelievable and I think he proposed the idea only to woo voters,” Hau said at Taipei City Hall.
Taipei implemented the garbage policy in 2000 under then-mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). It requires residents to dispose of their non-recyclable garbage in designated bags, as a means to encourage recycling and to reduce the amount of trash.
According to the city government, household garbage volume fell from 2,970 tonnes per day in 2000 to 1,009 tonnes per day last year, a 67 percent decline.
Hau said the policy has enhanced city residents’ sense of environmental protection, which was why the city government was currently demonstrating the city’s achievements in garbage recycling and reduction at the World Expo in Shanghai.
“Cities all over the world are learning about the successful model from us and it makes no sense for us to go backwards,” Hau said.
Su yesterday also condemned the Hau administration for limiting the number of public trash cans around the city, a policy aimed at preventing residents from disposing of household garbage in public trash cans.
Su urged the city government to increase the number of public trash cans.
In response, Hau said the city government had installed 3,117 trash cans, which he said should be enough to meet needs of the public and that the number of trash cans in an area was allocated according to the number of local businesses and the number of people that travel through and live in the area.
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