In a departure from his predecessors, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) has expressed firm opposition to importing scrap metal, potentially bringing an end to debate over lifting a ban on imported waste and scrap metal from electronic devices.
“Taiwan has moved past the time when we had to make a living on processing imported e-waste and scrap metals,” Lee said at an impromptu meeting with reporters on Monday. “The scrap metal recycling industry did more harm than good.”
Lee said that he recently visited Tainan’s Erjen River (二仁溪), beside which one of the world’s largest e-waste and scrap-metal recycling centers operates, and some dismantled ship parts and electronic scraps are still buried there from the 1970s.
Some estimates say that the recycling industry at the site has generated about NT$1.95 billion (US$59.6 million at current exchange rates) in revenue, but pollution remediation has cost the government about NT$2 billion, and it is obvious that such an industry is not worth developing, the minister said.
Lee’s position might signal an end to controversy surrounding reports that a ban on the import of scrap metals would be lifted, with the move linked to an “urban mining” initiative that former EPA ministers Stephen Shen (沈世宏) and Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) had promoted.
The initiative was aimed at promoting recycling of a variety of industrial waste, construction debris, disused electronics and other materials, which, coupled with an EPA proposal three years ago to remove 12 kinds of waste from electronic devices and scrap metal from a list of hazardous industrial waste, prompted speculation that the agency was mulling the possibility of lifting the import ban to boost the recycling industry.
The EPA will continue the effort to create a “zero waste” environment and a “cradle-to-cradle” resource lifecycle so that all products are reused, which requires technology development, new legal provisions and improved law enforcement, Lee said.
“Reinforcing bars from a demolished building can be recycled and reused, one company’s waste can be used in another firm’s manufacturing process and residue can be converted into paving materials,” he said.
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