New Taipei City residents often dump garbage in Taoyuan to avoid paying for trash bags, Taoyuan City councilors said yesterday, urging the two cities’ environmental protection bureaus to tackle the problem.
The Taipei City Government in 2000 started to levy a trash tax from the sale of the bags, rather than including it into utility bills, requiring city residents to dispose of their trash in the specialized bags.
In 2010, New Taipei City also adopted the policy, leading to some residents dumping trash in Taoyuan, where the bags are not taxed, said Taoyuan City Councilor Lin Cheng-fong (林正峰), who represents the city’s Gueishan District (龜山).
Gueishan’s garbage trucks are often overburdened with trash coming from New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang (新莊), Shulin (樹林) and Linkou (林口) districts, he said, asking: “Is Taoyuan rich enough to deal with another city’s trash?”
Taoyuan City Councilor Liu Mao-chun (劉茂群), representing the city’s Bade District (八德), said his constituency has found a large amount of trash from the neighboring Yingge District (鶯歌) in New Taipei City.
People in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹) also complained about trash from Linkou, Taoyuan City Councilor Hsu Ching-shun (許清順) said.
“People are shifting their troubles to their neighbors,” Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection Director-General Shen Chih-hsiu (沈志修) said.
Shen promised to work the problem out with New Taipei City’s corresponding bureau.
Meanwhile, he said that it would be difficult for the Taoyuan City Government to impose a trash bag fee in the near future.
To tax trash bags, the city would have to make a budget for them and arrange for more inspectors to patrol the streets, he said.
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