Collection and processing

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33 Figure c - Taiwan's recycling sector - Source: Bor et al. (2004)

4.1.2 Collection and processing

Collection of MSW since 1988 is arranged by municipalities and typically done at set times during the week; the community people are since 2006 required to hand in their garbage, separated from recyclables, in person at the truck. These hand-ins subsequently get checked by the recycling truck personnel and refused if not according to sorting standards (Lu et al. 2006; Pariatamby and Tanaka 2014). Since the implementation of the 4-in-1 recycling system, the proceeds from recycling are used to reward communities, responsible organizations and collection crews (Lu et al. 2006). For recyclables, an early unsuccessful attempt was made in 1990 to make communities recycle by installing collection bins in several neighborhoods (EPA 2012a).

In Taipei City in 2000, a Pay-As-You-Throw economic incentive system was implemented, where community members pay for regular waste bags, the only bags that are accepted by the municipal garbage trucks, and handing in recycling is for free. As

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such, sorting of wastes is encouraged, and generation of non-recyclable waste is discouraged (Lu et al. 2006). In theoretical terms, this is a perfect example of the collaborative approach; it is mandatory to do recycling, and also made beneficial to do so.

There is, however, still a private sector collection channel for recyclables, which is rarely described in both English-level literature and official statistics. From empirical observation, it seems clear that lower-level informal collection is a very common thing;

in many neighborhoods around Taiwan, people can be seen collecting recyclables at roadsides and around municipal collection points. Very little is formally documented about these private collectors in literature, but one needs to visit Taipei only one night to observe that their activities are common and widespread. From reports by several news outlets it becomes clear that private small-scale recyclable collectors are mostly part of the lower-income layers of society, using recyclable collection as a means to provide themselves with at least minimal level subsistence, and that this is a relatively old practice said by some to have flourished before Taiwan’s current, public-led recycling sector emerged.

The only brief academic analysis of scavenging and roadside collection of recyclables in Taiwan that was found is a Master’s dissertation and dates back to 1996 (Yeung 1996).

This thesis describes how, at the time, PET bottles were collected by scavengers and sold to local collectors, who were officially contracted by the appropriate parties to take these back; this leaves an important function for them, despite this author also pointing out that their role has reduced since recycling became a government directed activity.

Estimations on the size of the private sector collection in terms of employment differ heavily. Hsu et al. (citing their own works from 1998 and 1999 in Bor et al. (2004)) estimate from survey research that job opportunities provided by businesses that focus on waste packaging containers, merely in the collection and sorting part, equaled around 15.816 in 1998, with 96.79% provided to people with education levels of senior high school and below. For the same year, Hsu and Kuo (2002) estimate the total employment opportunities provided by collection and sorting to be at 182.538, over ten times the number the previous study reports.

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In terms of waste processing and recycling, by far most seems to be done by government organizations when considering official statistics. Statistics from EPA show that in 2015, government services collected and disposed of 7.228.217 (EPA 2016a) metric tons of MSW, of which 3.373.190 tons (rounded) (EPA 2016a) was recycled by government agencies. Other officially verified volumes of recycling add up to 683.812 tons of recyclables processed in the same year (rounded; calculated from statistics by EPA (2016b). Figure d through g provide an overview of processing methods employed by government agencies and their share of total collected MSW, for the period 2001-2015 at 5-year intervals. (note: earliest statistics available were from 2001, so this data was taken instead of 2000.; 0% in 2010 and 2015 comes from ‘other’ processing methods. Numbers include kitchen waste and bulk waste recycling, which were initiated in 2003 and 2005 respectively and thus partly explain the jump in 2001-2005)

Terminology in the Taiwanese EPA’s statistics was experienced as sometimes confusing;

there is for a document showing numbers that relaste to “Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste”, of which the ‘recycling’ numbers do not fully match the numbers presented under “Certified Recycling Volume”. For the visual display in the figures d-g, the numbers in the document “Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste” were used.

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These figures show three things about the public Taiwanese MSW sector that can be concluded. Firstly, recycling has gone from being the third method of disposal after landfilling and incineration, at only 12.68% of the total in 2001, to being the method accounting for the largest share of waste disposal at 55.23% in 2015. This is in accordance with the Resource Recycling Act, Article 6, which stipulates that recycling is preferred over energy recovering (incineration) and means such as landfilling (Resource Recycling Act 2009).

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Secondly, it is clear that though incineration has decreased in relative importance as a disposal method, it still is the second preferred method at 43.48% of total waste disposal in 2015; quite likely, this is explained by related economic benefits. Taiwan itself does not possess many means of generating energy, and currently leans on imports for vast shares of its energy generation (e.g.: in 2014, Taiwan relied on petroleum products, of which it does not generate its own, for 48.18% of its energy generation (EPA 2016c).

Moreover, the energy generating incinerators represent an already made investment by both private investors and government; abolishing these may lead to protests, lawsuits and other unwanted consequences.

Figure h - Total recyclables collected and sorted by government agencies. Source: own. Statistics: EPA (2001-2015);

Lu et al (2006) (1997-2000)

Figure i – Daily MSW per capita. Source: own. Statistics: EPA (2001-2015); Lu et al. (2006) (1996-2000)

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As an observation from the total figures, figures h and i, Taiwan has managed to bring down its MSW production over 2001-2015 by 13.27%, an impressive decrease of 1.029 kilograms per capita per day to 0.844 kilograms per capita per day. This is the result of effective communication, mandatory recycling, and the earlier mentioned PAYT system in both Taipei and New Taipei City.