A record-high number of waste collection vehicles have been equipped with an Environmental Protection Administration GPS tracking system to monitor the flow of toxic materials and deter illegal disposal.
The EPA yesterday said its GPS system was fitted in a total of 8,888 trucks in the nation as of last year, a significant increase from 270 vehicles in 1992, following an amendment to the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法) that requires vehicles transporting regulated waste to install the GPS tracking device.
The 8,888 trucks account for 64 percent of all vehicles in the nation that transport regulated waste, with those containing the GPS system shipping 14 million tonnes of industrial wastes last year, Department of Waste Management Director Wu Sheng-chung (吳盛忠) said.
Regulated waste includes 267 types of industrial waste, such as chemicals, sludge, solution, medical waste and animal corpses, while reusable waste, including slag and waste building materials, represents a majority of industrial waste transported, or 9.3 million tonnes.
The tracking system detects about 10,000 suspected violations every year, according to vehicle activity and route analysis. About 0.9 percent of suspected violations can be verified, while most violations involve illicit transportation of dead pigs, Wu said.
Twenty-nine percent of trucks equipped with the GPS system are in central Taiwan, while 27 percent are in southern regions and 20 percent in northern regions, which matches the distribution of industries in the nation.
Local environmental agencies can enter an illegal dumping hotspot into the system, which issues a warning any time a vehicle with a tracking device enters the hotspot, with 1,300 hotspots nationwide already in the system, Wu said.
However, when questioned by reporters over the tracking system monitoring the flow of regulated waste from their sources to processors and recyclers, but being unable to detect subsequent transportation and illegal dumping by untrackable vehicles, Wu said that the system is not flawless.
“The system can only be used to monitor registered vehicles, but it is more or less powerless against intentional violators, who can hire unregistered vehicles to transport waste undetected. However, the practice is illegal and liable to heavy punishment, while we are planning a new tracking device with new technology,” he said.
Wu said the new device could not be revealed yet and urged waste processors to abide by the law.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS