Jhubei (竹北) Mayor Ho Kan-ming (何淦銘) has pledged NT$120 million (US$4 million) to clean a landfill site in his Hsinchu County city after residents voiced sanitation concerns.
The central government has offered NT$84 million and the county government has budgeted NT$36 million for the project, the Jhubei Environmental Protection Bureau said.
The county is to hold a public meeting to explain the project and, if it is approved, the project is to be open to tender, the bureau said.
Jhubei City councilors Chen Su-tsen (陳素珍), Chung Guo-chang (鍾國章) and Tseng Chin-ching (曾金清) said that residents have complained about the swelling and messy landfill in the past month.
The landfill sites in Jhubei and Sinfong Township (新豐) were not properly disinfected and if the wind blows in a westerly direction, the garbage can be smelt, the three councilors said, adding that the smell would likely be worse in summer.
Jhubei garbage collection section head Wang Kuei-sheng (王貴生) said that since a waste incinerator in Hsinchu has stopped operating, the trash in Jhubei and Sinfong had increased to more than 4,500 tonnes.
The landfill covers more than 2 hectares, and in the past two decades more than 70,000 tonnes of trash has been buried on the site, far beyond its default capacity, the bureau said.
About 30 percent to 40 percent of the trash could be re-sorted, recycled or burned, while the rest could be buried, the bureau said.
Due to its location in a military restricted zone, the landfill was confined, the bureau said, adding that after the cleaning project there would be more space, 40 percent of which would be given to the central government and the rest to the county government to store nonflammable trash or natural disaster debris.
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