At first glance, the front area outside Lee Yue-xia (李月霞) and husband Wei Xuan-zhen's (魏孫堅) home appeared as if it had seen the worst of Typhoon Aere last week. But, in fact, this is how it looks all the time, said Lee.
Lee and Wei are not city-employed recycling collectors, but their livelihood is legal. They've been labeled scavengers and like others in Taiwan they are often spotted tailing garbage trucks in the evening to collect other peoples' recyclables, which will later be exchanged for cash.
PHOTO: DIANA FREUNDL, TAIPEI TIMES
Although recycling laws have been tightened in Taiwan's bid to go green, they fail to embrace those who were making contributions towards a greener country long before there were any laws. Lee said her job was more profitable 20 years ago when there were less scavengers and no government employed collection agencies.
PHOTO: DIANA FREUNDL, TAIPEI TIMES
"A few years ago there was no one else in this area. Now, if we don't get to a place first then everything is already gone," Lee said.
A day after the typhoon had passed, Lee and Wei were busy sorting through bags of damaged goods, looking for bottles and cans. "Today is glass and tin day," said Wei as he heaved a bag stuffed with old pots, pans and random tin scraps over the top of his modified scooter-truck. It was 1pm and the couple was busy separating items they had collected the previous night, before delivering them to a nearby depot.
PHOTO: DIANA FREUNDL, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee has been scavenging for nearly 30 years, but her husband Wei didn't join her until six years ago after the neighborhood bar he was employed at closed down.
"At that time, the economy wasn't doing very well and a lot of people lost their jobs, this [collecting recycling] has become an easy way for people to make money," said Wei, who estimated the number of people scavenging has increased at least 20 percent since he joined his wife.
Lee and Wei's combined average monthly income is NT$20,000, most of which comes from the money they are paid for paper products. The amount they are paid depends on the type and quality of paper and fluctuations in market price. Newsprint earns them NT$1 per kilogram whereas cardboard is less than one NT$1 per kilogram.
Their day begins at noon, when the two sort through the previous evening's collection of plastic, glass, cardboard, and whatever other items turned up at their home during the night. After several hours of sorting and a few trips to different recycling depots, they get ready to start the collection process all over again. At 7pm, Lee and Wei get on their scooter and follow the garbage truck in Taipei's ShiLin district until 11pm when they retire for the day.
Last year, Taiwan's daily per person waste volume was 0.8kg, down 0.1kg from 2002, according to statistics provided by Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). Similarly the recycling rate reached its record high of 18 percent in 2002, up 5 percent from the previous year. A statement issued by the EPA said that, given the recycling system already in place and further plans to promote the Compulsory Waste Sorting policy, Taiwan should be able to reach the 2020 goal of Complete Sorting for Zero Waste.
While figures from the EPA suggest otherwise, Wei said since he joined his wife collecting garbage full time, he hasn't noticed any significant difference in private individuals' recycling habits. Restaurants and shops, on the other hand, now provide the bulk of his stuff, he said adding that most of their paper material comes from commercial businesses in the area.
Before Taipei City Government made it illegal to leave garbage outside, people would have a designated area to leave unwanted items. While the couple are not expecting the city to designate any specific place for people to leave their recyclable materials soon, they did say having an open door policy for people who want to leave their unwanted items in front of their house helps. Likewise, the EPA provides a detailed list of such scavenger's addresses on their Web site at http://recycle.epa.gov.tw.
The outside of the couple's home might look similar to a scrap yard, but the inside wasn't crammed ceiling high with broken electrical appliances and random findings, as one might think. "We aren't looking for home decorations. This is a job. We collect this stuff and then we sell it for money," Lee said.
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