This project, conducted from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019, aimed to audit designated enterprises responsible for funding recycling (henceforth, ‘responsible enterprises’) with regard to the manufactured/imported volume of regulated containers according to the ‘Waste Disposal Act’ enacted by the Recycling Fund Management Board under the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). The objective of this project was to inspect 1,200 enterprises. By the end of final report, 1,205 enterprises had been audited, reaching 100.42% of the targeted number of enterprises. The accumulated amount of recycling-clearance-disposal fees to be collected from the audited enterprises through on-site inspections was NTD141,612,924, the revenue-to-cost ratio was 3.44. Among the 1,205 enterprises which were inspected on site, 124 enterprises overpaid the fees and 664 underpaid the fees. By 31 December 2019, 641 out of the 664 enterprises that had underpaid the fees (i.e.,96.54% of these enterprises) had submitted fee deficiencies. Of the total accumulated sum of fee deficiencies, 34.03% (i.e., NTD48,187,145) was collected, which was 1.1696 times higher than the project’s expenses. This project also collected comments from the audited enterprises, and then sorted and statistically analysed these comments for policymakers’ reference with regard to future policymaking. Based on the audit results, this project suggests that the EPA should continue to inspect responsible enterprises that had previously underpaid the recycling-clearance-disposal fees in order to emphasize its determination to enforce the policy and to ensure fairness among the audited enterprises. Moreover, when conducting on-site inspections, the EPA should also promote regulations related to the enterprises and facilitate them to provide accurate data on the manufactured/imported volume on the EPA website. Following these recommendations will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of collecting the recycling-clearance-disposal fees, as well as maintain an accurate and up-to-date database for managerial purposes.

Responsible enterprises, Recycling-clearance-disposal fee, Revenues to Cost ratio