The Yunlin County Government said it had reduced the county’s overall trash volume by 7 percent after implementing a policy of searching people’s garbage bags and rejecting them if they contain recyclables or food scraps.
Yunlin’s waste output had risen during the COVID-19 pandemic to about 400 metric tonnes per day, Yunlin Environmental Protection Bureau director Zhang Qiao-wei (張喬維) said in a statement.
The increase appeared to be driven by changes in consumer behaviors, such as a rise in packaging waste from online shopping, as well as a failure to separate recycling and trash, he said.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
To reverse that trend, the county government adopted a policy in March last year instructing waste management workers to search some residents’ trash bags and refuse those that contained food scraps and other recyclable materials, he said.
Since the implementation of the policy, waste disposal workers have opened about 100,000 garbage bags and rejected almost 20,000, because they contained recyclables such as paper products and food scraps, Zhang said.
In addition, 61 garbage trucks containing about 1,000 metric tonnes of trash were also rejected when they went to unload, because inspectors found that they contained garbage that was not properly sorted, he said.
Zhang did not say how the county dealt with the rejected garbage truck loads.
Changhua County also has a similar policy.
Yunlin’s monthly trash volume in November last year was 1,200 metric tonnes lower than in July, equivalent to about 7 percent less trash per day, said Teng Ya-chen (鄧雅謓), head of the Yunlin bureau’s Waste Management Division.
The county generates 360 metric tonnes of trash per day, which it hopes, with continued enforcement, to reduce to 340 metric tonnes by the end of this year, the bureau said.
The bureau said that Yunlin County does not have a waste incineration plant, and previously had to rely on other cities and counties to help with its waste disposal.
However, in recent years, the county has adopted a “zero waste” approach and has also begun producing solid recovered fuels, or refuse-derived fuels, from recovered waste, it said.
Of the remaining garbage, some is sent for incineration at the Mailiao Refinery, while the rest is sent to six local landfills, the bureau said.
With the county now largely self-sufficient in waste disposal, it aims to gradually remove and process the waste in its landfills until the landfills themselves can be closed and used for other purposes, it said.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
Shih Hsin University President Chen Ching-he (陳清河) yesterday issued a public apology for comments made in his commencement speech last week, stating that he has asked the school to suspend his duties and halt his wages for two months as a show of contrition. At the commencement ceremony on May 30, Chen said, “If you don’t manage your time well, or your own emotions, or your health, then I am telling every one of you — put a quick end to ‘you,’ because the world has no need for ‘you.’” The comments have sparked significant controversy online, and Chen through an open
RSS