In just 20 years Taiwan transitioned from an island on the brink of a waste apocalypse to a global leader in recycling.
Back on the first day of 1996, more than a hundred residents of the Nantze borough of Kaohsiung city sealed off all the entrances to the Hsichingpu landfill, on the border between Kaohsiung city and Kaohsiung county, to prevent more than 300 garbage trucks from dumping household waste there. The demonstrators, faced by a wall of police in full riot gear, protested against the Mayor of Kaoshiung, whom they regarded as responsible for the problem. The next day, the Chief of Chiaotou rural township, filed suit against the mayor for breach of faith and later led some two hun¬dred villagers, equipped with sleeping bags and drinking water, to stage a 24-hour vigil at the landfill. Suffering from the effects of air and ground-water pollution of improper waste dumping within their surroundings, they were determined that no more garbage from neighboring Kaohsiung city should be dumped there.
In the face of such strong public objections, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed building incinerators instead of landfills to reduce conflicts and waste. However, the residents felt that building more incinerators would impact their health adversely and protested through physical obstructions.
What followed next was a series of protests and obstructions towards the government’s construction of landfill and incineration plants.
The government had few choices but to focus on reducing and recycling their wastes instead. In the last two decades, implementations such as amending Waste Disposal Act to include and prioritize recycling and waste reduction , as well as introducing an EPR scheme to steer the industries towards sustainability.
Academics, governments, NGOs and even industry across the world acknowledge the critical role EPR plays in reducing waste. The schemes require manufacturers or importers to pay a small fee for creating or importing products; this fee then goes into a fund managed by the government to develop waste management infrastructure or recycling industries. A portion of the fund also goes to educational projects to inform citizens how to recycle and to encourage them to recycle less common objects like lightbulbs, appliances and computers. This, combined with legislation that bans certain types of waste from the landfills, incentivizes industry to create products that are easily recycled and reduces waste at the production level.
Over the years, Taiwan residents slowly adapted to the culture of taking waste management seriously as individuals. Everyone is responsible for his or her personal consumption. Every plastic fork, every bottled beverage, and every food scrap needs to be accounted for by its consumer. The implementation of a few clever policies encourages this new relationship with trash.
Currently there are more than 4,000 garbage pickup spots around sTaipei, which trucks visit five nights a week. There are mobile apps that let users track the trucks and alert them whenever one is nearby. Echoes of Fur Elise signal to the surrounding community that it’s time to move out on to the street in preparation.
It’s compulsory for the people of Taiwan to use a special blue ‘City of Taipei’ garbage bag to dispose of general waste. They then have to separate their waste into three categories — general refuse, recyclables, and food waste. Most refuse is incinerated, raw food waste is composted, and cooked food waste is fed to local black-haired pigs.
On the other hand, recycling is free and can be brought to the truck in any kind of bag.
In public areas, you can barely see any trash cans. The only places that have small, knee high cans are train stations and bus stops. If people generate trash while out in public, most often they take it home with them.
Residents use a pay-as-you-throw program to purchase bags and can be charged stiff penalties for non-compliance. Cities such as Taipei also have pick-ups available in different areas five nights per week with mobile apps to alert residents when trucks are nearby.
Since the launch of PAYT, per capita waste generation in Taipei fell 31 percent in 15 years from 1.26 kg per person per day in 1997 to 0.87 kg in 2015. The financial penalty drove recycling, increasing recycling rates from 2 percent to 57 percent. While Taipei adopted the scheme first, a similar trend was seen across Taiwan. Taipei city boasts the highest recycling rate in Taiwan of 56 percent thanks to the PAYT and EPR schemes.
Fines are also charged, and half the value of the total fines collected are sometimes offered to citizens who turn in evidence that help authorities catch violators.
Waste is also sometimes turned into art installations, like the nine storeyed EcoArk pavilion built out of recycled plastic bottles.
Some areas have installed video cameras, used to catch violators. First time violators are given a warning, but the second time, the video footage is posted with the offender’s face blurred out. This serves as incentive to the offender to not violate the rules again.
Today, Taiwan incinerates less than it did in 2000, despite a peak in 2007. In fact, many incinerators around the island operate well below capacity. Landfill use, which once almost threatened to take over the island, decreased 98 percent. Today, Taiwan produces more recyclable waste than unusable waste and makes consistent progress towards a “zero waste society.” Imagine if other cities learned from Taipei’s success.
"To make the policy work, you have to make it convenient for people. You need incentives and you need penalties," Wu Sheng-chung, director-general of the EPA’s waste management department, told The Wall Street Journal.
Turning Trash Into Treasure
By turning this on its head, Taiwan is now a world leader on pro-environment policy and one of the world’s top recyclers. Taiwan’s previous biggest problem is now its biggest asset, due to the implementation of these advanced waste management practices. Their recycling industry now brings in billions of dollars.
While recycling can divert a portion of the waste from landfills, the total volume must come down as well. EPR thus draws down waste in two ways – by forcing industry to pay into a fund to resolve the waste and to incentivize manufacturers to create easy-to-recycle products.
Most countries with successful recycling rates or programs also have some type of EPR to manage their waste (e.g. European Union. Refer to http://www.europarl.europa.eu/EPRS/EPRS-Briefing-573936-Circular-economy-package-FINAL.pdf)
Looking at Taiwan – EPR and PAYT together fix trash problems without unmanageable costs and spur innovation. Developing a circular economy is a question of will, not means.
Based on the research information above, I would say that it is very possible for Singapore to achieve the same success on recycling as Taiwan.
It all starts from us as individuals, just like how Taiwanese residents With the increased awareness of waste generated throughout the world, people are gradually having a shift in their mindset and taking their own initiatives to reduce, reuse or recycle their wastes. If the government takes the first step in pushing for radical policy implementation (PAYT and EPR) on improving our waste management, I believe that one day Singapore will be one of the success stories like Taiwan.