The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is planning use food waste as a source of biomass energy.
Taiwan produces on average 2,246 tonnes of food waste per day and about 1,263 tonnes of cooked food waste becomes pig food per day, EPA data showed.
The Council of Agriculture on Wednesday last week banned pig farmers from using cooked food waste for a month amid an African swine fever scare, which has increased the food waste that the EPA has to handle.
Since 2019, the EPA has subsidized local governments to install facilities to process uncooked food waste.
EPA officials said that it would be a while before the facilities can process cooked food waste.
“For the facilities to handle cooked food waste as well, local governments would have to grow bacteria to ferment the compost,” Bureau of Environmental Inspection Technical Supervisor Lin Tso-hsiang (林佐祥) said on Monday.
“Because each site has its own treatment process, we cannot mandate a single bacterium,” Lin said.
Although the facilities have adequate capacity to handle the excess food waste until the council ban ends, the EPA is forced to incinerate the waste or bury it in landfills, Lin said.
Businesses that dump food waste into the sewage system in contravention of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法) would face jail terms of one to five years or fines of up to NT$15 million (US$541,321), he said.
However, the waste can be used as a source of biomass energy, he said.
“We have funded the Central Livestock Farm to conduct an experiment to produce biogas by fermenting food waste along with pig feces and urine,” Lin said.
“Biogas can help generate electricity, while biogas slurry and residue can be used as organic fertilizer,” he said.
“If the experiment proceeds successfully, we plan to replicate the same model at pig farms across the nation to process food waste,” he added.
There are plans to pulp household food waste before it is delivered to anaerobic digestion facilities at wastewater treatment plants, Lin said, adding that the treatment process would help dispose of the waste and generate biogas.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS