The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is to convene a roundtable discussion today with biodegradable plastic product manufacturers, consumer representatives, recycling business owners and experts to discuss how to better dispose of such products.
The latest statistics from the EPA showed that the most common type of biodegradable plastic products in Taiwan, made from polylactic acid (PLA), amounted to 6,964 tonnes last year, with a recycling rate of only 5.2 percent, or 363 tonnes.
However, while biodegradable plastic products are widely used in the nation, only two local companies are capable of fully processing such products, said Wei Wen-yi (魏聞宜), deputy secretary-general of the EPA’s Recycling Management Fund.
As the two companies are capable of handling up to 4,200 tonnes per year of recycled biodegradable plastic products, they can easily deal with the aforementioned 363 tonnes of recycled plastic, she said.
However, the reality is more complicated as biodegradable plastic products outwardly resemble most other plastic products and, as such, many are not correctly recycled, she said.
The difficulty in spotting PLA products, and their comparative rarity, has led to a lack of interest among many recycling business owners, she added.
The EPA has said that biodegradable plastic products must be recycled and offers a NT$15.17 subsidy per kilogram of recyled biodegradable plastic products, the EPA said.
The current method of disposing of biodegradable plastic products is to make them into solid recovered fuel, it said.
The common practice abroad is to burn biodegradable plastics or to turn them into compost, the EPA said, but added that not all composting plants can process biodegradable plastics.
The EPA is reviewing how to better deploy technology in recycling, and is holding a discussion today on how to categorize, treat and reuse biodegradable plastics.
The agency is considering issuing regulations to limit biodegradable plastics for use in certain products and reviewing subsidy rates for recycling efforts.
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