Recycling is now Taiwan's way of life

LARGE-SCALE recycling may have only started in the late 1990s in Taiwan, but given the way it has become part of everyday life, the casual observer could easily conclude it has been occurring here for considerably longer.

Landfills were the primary method of waste disposal in Taiwan through the 1980s, while incineration became popular in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, however, recycling was beginning to make inroads. As it has with other progressive movements in Taiwan, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation helped to usher in recycling, when, in 1990, the group's founder urged members to turn "garbage into gold and gold into love".

The government became involved in 1998, when the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) established a program combining the efforts of communities, recycling companies and waste collectors with the financial resources of the aptly named Recycling Fund.

Manufacturers, vendors and importers of recyclable waste pay fees to the fund, which uses the money to set firm prices for recyclables and subsidise local recycling efforts.

As a result, from 1998 to 2008, the recycling rate surged from six per cent to 32 per cent. This is not only good for Taiwan, but also sets a good international precedent, as attested to by Japan, mainland China, Thailand, Germany and the Netherlands, which have all sent teams to study the recycling system here.

That system would not be effective, however, if it did not have firm public backing. Fortunately, while recycling may be a fairly recent trend, the principles behind it are anything but alien in Taiwan, as people here tend to be both practical and progressive.

On the practical side, throwing containers into garbage cans does not make sense to most people; instead, they have become aware that those empty bottles and cans still have value. That awareness finds validation in the NT$9 billion (US$280 million) average annual production value created from sales of raw materials made from the containers. Another example of the value of recyclables is Taoyuan County's Super Dragon Technology Company, which extracts hundreds of kilogrammes of precious metals each month from discarded information technology products, or e-waste.

The progressive nature of recycling is also very clear in the case of e-waste. The EPA and recyclers like Super Dragon work hard to prevent e-waste from reaching landfills, where it can release toxic dioxins and hazardous heavy metals, while recycling it avoids such risks and also generates considerable practical, economic value. It is not a difficult choice to make.

People here also have a progressive sense of the finiteness of resources. When talking about their homeland, locals often tell visitors "Taiwan is just a small island".

Compounding matters is the island's limited amount of level ground suitable for homes and businesses. There is thus a growing awareness that environmental problems in these densely packed areas will be felt quickly, and by many.

On a larger scale, recycling is now also extending to urban planning. For the 2010 Taipei International Flora Expo beginning on November 6 this year, for example, Taipei City will renovate eight existing structures to serve as exhibition halls, while six new ones will be constructed with an eye toward reusing their building materials after the exposition ends.

Recycling makes environmental and economic sense, and has also become so ingrained for most people that it has become a commonplace daily occurrence, as recycling bins can be found in department stores, office buildings, schools, supermarkets, fast food restaurants and convenience stores, among other places.

More and more, recycling appears to be the shape of things to come, and Taiwan is doing its part to help the world reach the goal of environmental sustainability.

Reprinted with permission of the Taiwan Review