The government is to spend NT$1.2 billion (US$37.4 million) over three years to remove all garbage pileups by the end of 2026, the Ministry of Environment said yesterday.
Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) tapped Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) to volunteer the municipality’s excess garbage incineration capabilities for the betterment of the entire nation.
The ministry is ready to help coordinate logistics and efforts, should the Taipei City Government be willing, Peng said after a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
Photo: Taipei Times
Domestic incinerators have been undergoing maintenance and upgrades on a rotational basis since 2017, resulting in 840,000 tonnes of unburied trash nationwide, he said.
The ministry had allocated funds to subsidize local government efforts to fill landfills, and package and sort exposed trash, he said.
Hsinchu County has the nation’s greatest amount of unburied trash, Peng said, adding that the Hsinchu County Government’s newly built incinerator would be trialed at the end of the year.
Other counties with severe trash problems include Pingtung and Nantou, while Taoyuan accounts for 87,000 tonnes of unburied trash, he said.
Nantou County has been planning to build an incinerator to resolve its trash issues, with Nantou County Commissioner Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) claiming that the county needed more time.
Peng said the ministry would endeavor to provide any form of assistance possible.
Environmental Management Administration Director-General Yen Hsu-ming (顏旭明) said that there are currently 28 incinerators: 24 publicly owned ones, two in Taitung and Hualien counties established through collaboration with Taiwan Cement Co (台泥), and two more in Taoyuan and Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮).
The one under construction in Hsinchu County would be the 29th incinerator, Yen said, adding that it is expected to be completed this year.
Garbage disposal is the responsibility of the local governments, as the central government does not own any incinerators, Peng said.
However, he said he hoped some cities and counties with excess incinerator capacity would step up to help.
Citing excess garbage in New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and the inability of both municipalities to handle the situation, Peng urged Chiang to provide assistance.
Ultimately, counties and cities must start reducing trash and enforce categorization for recycling, Peng said, praising Changhua County Commissioner Wang Hui-mei’s (王惠美) inspection of garbage bags, which has helped reduce the county’s trash by 30 percent.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm named Trami at 2am yesterday, and is projected to move west-northwest toward waters east of Luzon Island, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Trami’s center was 700km east of Manila, or 1,180km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving in a northwesterly direction. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65kph, with gusts of up to 90kph, CWA data showed. The weather agency forecast the center of the storm would be over waters 470km east-northeast of Manila or 820km southeast of Oluanpi at 8am today, and urged ships
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday temporarily shut down the nation’s nuclear energy generation as the state-run utility started regular maintenance on the remaining reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant for 41 days. The No. 2 reactor of the nation’s only active nuclear plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) is set to be decommissioned next year. The No. 1 reactor has been offline since July. The shutdown is to perform equipment maintenance and fuel replacement in preparation for the power plant’s next operating cycle, Taipower said in a statement. With support from other energy sources, Taipower would ensure sufficient power supply
TROUBLED WATERS: The ministers also said they opposed China’s obstruction of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and the militarization of disputed features G7 defense ministers in a joint statement on Saturday singled out China over a number of concerns, including its “provocative actions” near Taiwan. The defense ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US gathered in Naples, Italy, from Friday to yesterday for the group’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defense. In the joint declaration, they stressed “enduring unity and common determination to address, in a cohesive and concrete manner, security challenges, at a time in history marked by great instability.” In addition to voicing support for Ukraine, expressing concern about the escalating conflict in the Middle East and condemning
BIGGEST TROUBLEMAKER: China should not be carrying out any such exercises given the threat to regional peace and stability, Premier Cho Jung-tai said yesterday The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that live-fire Chinese drills in a province facing Taiwan are part of routine annual drills, but also possibly part of China’s “deterrence effect” in the waters of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration, in a notice late on Monday, said an area around Niushan Island in China’s Fujian Province would be closed off for four hours from 9am yesterday for live-fire drills. Niushan sits just south of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands. The ministry in a statement said that the exercises are part of routine Chinese training and it was keeping a close watch, but