Once dubbed “garbage island” for its overflowing landfills and filthy streets, Taiwan now has Asia’s highest rate of recycling and is a role model for the region, analysts said on Thursday.
With untreated waste causing marine pollution and clogged drains triggering fatal floods from Bangkok to Manila, Southeast Asian cities should look to Taiwan’s success in reducing and recycling waste, they said.
“Taiwan didn’t do anything mystical; it just developed good policy based on the experiences of others,” Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research consultant Nate Maynard said. “If Southeast Asian countries adopted the same core principles, then they could develop their own models that work.”
Reducing waste is becoming a global priority amid growing calls for more aggressive action on climate change and plastic pollution, particularly in urban areas, which the UN has projected will house 60 percent of the global population by 2030.
Environmentalists asked leaders at the 10-member ASEAN summit to create a “sustainable and ethical circular economy” that reduces the harmful effects of poor waste management amid rapid growth.
“Countries should be thinking about reducing consumption of plastic, redesigning products to reduce waste and more recycling,” said Penchom Saetang of advocacy group Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand. “We have seen the devastating impacts of improper waste management on communities. The price we pay in terms of loss of health, land and clean drinking water is incalculable.”
Taiwan’s reforms were started two decades ago by residents in the capital, Taipei, who protested the city’s inaction on waste management, resulting in “pay-as-you-throw” taxes, where charges depend on the amount of garbage produced.
Presorted waste is also handed to musical garbage trucks that make the rounds five nights per week, while residents and businesses are encouraged to generate less waste, with stringent penalties for infractions, waste experts said.
“Taiwan did all this at a time of relatively lower economic development and without a long history of environmentalism. The movement was driven by grassroots efforts and public protests,” Maynard said.
Taiwan recycles about 55 percent of its municipal solid waste — the second-highest rate globally, said Grayson Shor, a circular economy consultant to the US government-funded American Institute in Taiwan.
Its per capita daily waste generation has fallen nearly 20 percent in two decades, with landfill sites being converted into parks and community centers, he added.
“Taiwan has been able to do this as a result of its green technology and design innovations in public education,” Shor told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “It is ... easily transferable to other Asian countries.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS