The recycling of table scraps and other food waste will become compulsory by 2006 nationwide, and will create about NT$2.4 billion in economic benefits, the Environmental Protection Admin-istration (EPA) said yesterday.
The new policy, which will make mandatory the recycling of all leftover food waste will begin in January next year and be fully implemented by 2006. Waste produced by households and restaurants will be subject to the new regulations. The policy is part of an effort to ease the burdens on waste incinerators. Officials said that Taiwan produces about 4,500 tonnes of leftover food waste daily, which accounts for 25 percent of all household waste.
Currently, the amount of leftover food waste recycled daily in 254 townships in the nation's 25 counties amounts to 836 tonnes, but this is done on a voluntary basis. In other words, less than one-fifth of all food waste produced by the nation is recycled.
Among its uses, food waste is used in livestock feed and in the production of compost.
"We aim to boost the amount to 1,600 tonnes by 2007, accounting for one-third of all food waste produced nationwide," Lin Tzo-hsiang (林左祥) of the EPA's Chief Inspectorate told the Taipei Times yesterday.
The EPA aims to have all 319 townships in 25 counties recycling leftover food in the near future. To reach the target of 1,600 metric tons by 2007, the EPA has spent a considerable sum of money on studies, educational programs and effectively food waste recycling measures. According to Lin, between 2003 and 2007, at least NT$1.4 billion would be spent to promote leftover food recycling.
Lin said that the effectiveness of the promotion of leftover food recycling depends on several factors, including education, well-designed collecting systems and facilities.
The EPA recently reviewed programs promoting the recycling of food waste across the nation and found that Taichung City, Keelung City, Ilan County and Taipei City had the best existing food waste recycling systems.
According to Lin, the Taipei City Government's success is due to the fact that almost all food waste collected can be fully utilized. Among the top performers, more than 60 percent of leftover food is recycled, Lin said.
The average cost of treating one tonne of household waste in incinerators is NT$2,000. The recycling of 1,600 tonnes of leftover food will not only ease the burden on incinerators but also create secondary benefits for the agricultural sector, Lin said.
"We estimate that the economic benefits resulting from the program will amount to about NT$2.4 billion annually," Lin said.
Currently, the EPA promotes a consumption restraint policy which states: "Eat what you can cook at home and order only what you can finish from restaurants."
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS