Two men in Taipei earned NT$1 million (US$33,700) in a year-and-a-half just from impeachment rewards for informing on those who were in violation of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法) and bringing it to the attention of the city’s Bureau of Environmental Protection.
Statistics from the bureau show that two men made an average of NT$110,000 per month collecting the rewards, with one earning NT$1.9 million and the other about NT$1 million.
Bureau officials said both were male and did not want their identity to be made public, adding that most of the rewards came from taking video footage of people throwing cigarette butts on the ground.
Photo: Chen Ching-min, Taipei Times
The official half jokingly said the two men were conducting their businesses “corporate style,” saying the pair had said they were hiring people, and buying video and photographic equipment to tail violators around the city.
If they found a scooter rider smoking, or someone driving with a cigarette in his hand hanging outside the window, they would “lock onto” the target and record the whole scene up until the rider or driver throws away the cigarette butt, officials said, adding that the footage would then be burned to DVD and sent to the bureau.
Their overheads were not met until nine months into their operation, the two men said, adding that the return rate on their investment was less than 40 percent, though they declined to state their expenditure on hiring and purchases of equipment.
The similarity between the two was that they did not do things sloppily and all their pictures or videos gave the bureau enough clues to go after violators, such as focusing on the car or scooter license plates, the official said, adding that the video captured every moment of the violators’ actions.
The majority of their income comes from taking videos or pictures of people littering the streets with cigarette butts, though a small portion also came from people posting small fliers that violate the law, the official said.
People littering the streets with cigarette butts can be fined up to NT$1,200, with 30 percent of that being the reward, about NT$360 per fine, the official said, adding that while the fine for illegal fliers is the same, the rewards are higher, 50 percent of the fine or NT$600 per case.
At a rough estimate, one man was reporting about 5,300 cases per month, while the second was reporting about 3,000 per month, the official said.
Another member of the public who has focused solely on pedestrian trashcans sent more than 300 cases to the bureau, of which the bureau has affirmed and taken legal action against 72.
At NT$900 per case, that person received more than NT$60,000 in rewards.
Bureau of Environmental Protection Third Section Chief Liang Hung-lang (梁宏朗) said that aside from fining people for littering cigarette butts, people that litter streets with bags of trash could be fined up to NT$6,000 and the informant gets 50 percent of that as a reward.
However, sources said the two men are of a mind to shut down their operations as their work requires too much effort.
Translated By Jake Chung, Staff Writer
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