The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) should be more active instead of letting local governments argue with one another, environmental groups said yesterday, as Yunlin County’s garbage problem evolved into a political issue.
About 8,000 tonnes of garbage have piled up into a hill the height of a four-story building in Yunlin’s Douliu City (斗六), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator-at-large Chang Li-shan (張麗善) told a news conference held jointly with Douliou Mayor Hsieh Shu-ya (謝淑亞) on Wednesday.
Kaohsiung had promised to help burn Yunlin’s trash on the condition that Yunlin takes back 1.8 tonnes of furnace slag for each tonne of trash burned, Chang said.
However, because the Douliou City Government did not offer any space for the slag, the Yunlin County Government refused to collect the city’s garbage, she said, adding that the incinerator in the county’s Linnei Township (林內) should be initiated as soon as possible.
EPA Deputy Minister Thomas Chan (詹順貴) later said that “initiating Linnei’s incinerator is not currently the government’s policy,” adding that the county government should negotiate with its cities and townships to find space to temporarily store the slag.
The Yunlin County Environmental Protection Union and other environmental groups in a joint statement yesterday said that garbage should not be allowed to become a political bargaining chip.
The EPA should not allow local governments to argue with one another, union chairman Chang Tsu-chien (張子見) said, adding that the agency should ask Kaohsiung to reduce the slag it exports.
Taichung only requires other municipalities to accept 200kg of slag per tonne of trash burned, he said.
Chan yesterday said that 1.8 tonnes of slag were indeed too much, but that the EPA had to respect the deal between the local governments.
“Currently, we are finding public construction companies to help de-chemicalize Yunlin’s slag, so that it could be used at construction sites,” Chan added.
The EPA is reviewing its regulations on garbage treatment and will publish a draft next month, Chan said..
The exchange ratio might be set at 500kg of slag per tonne of trash burned, he added.
However, the garbage problem was mostly a political problem, Chan said.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
RSS