Taiwan's waste imports hit a new high, is it a world garbage dump or a circular economy? EPD: high demand for industrial materials, will amend the law to strengthen quality control

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According to a survey conducted by Apple Daily, after China launched the waste ban this year, a large amount of global waste flowed into Taiwan. From January to July this year, Taiwan imported more than 1 million tons of waste plastic and waste paper, a record high, hitting Taiwan's recycling system and causing domestic recycling prices to fall. In this regard, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) held an emergency press conference today (30). Zhang Zijing, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, refuted the saying that "Taiwan is the world's garbage dump," stressing that "our country is short of resources and needs to import industrial materials." In response to the global trend of environmental protection, operators are encouraged to use more secondary materials instead of raw materials.

What is the flow direction of a large number of imported waste plastics and waste paper? Su Kuo-taek, deputy director of the waste disposal Department of the Environmental Protection Agency, stressed that these imported industrial materials will not go into incinerators. "I have checked that the capacity of incinerators has not increased this year."

The "upstream and downstream" sought confirmation from the incinerator, and the person in charge of an incineration plant in south-central China, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, pointed out: "domestic garbage can not be disposed of, but now we have to deal with foreign ones!" He says that over the past two or three years, incineration plants all over Taiwan have had to dispose of more and more garbage, mostly electronic waste, plastic bags, plastic bottles and cans, and even have to initiate control measures. "now as long as it exceeds the amount we can handle, it will not be collected, because it is really too much." However, he said that no special attention has been paid to the source of garbage, and there may be waste both at home and abroad.

Scholars question that while domestic recycling is not well done, the government still has to open up the import of foreign sources of materials. (photo courtesy of Tainan University)

Whether to hit domestic resource recyclers, EPA: start the resource recovery army program

Apple Daily reported that the recycling prices of some resources in China have fallen, and the income of self-employed individuals has been reduced by an average of 1314 yuan per month. In response, Zhang Zijing, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that last year, the Environmental Protection Agency launched the "Resource recovery Army Program," which will subsidize local governments to give priority to hiring low-income households to assist in capital collection. By July this year, more than 4, 000 self-employed individuals had been employed to help the self-employed increase their income by 3256 yuan a month.

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