The Environmental Protection Bureau of Chiayi County (hereinafter referred to as the Environmental Protection Bureau) has worked with the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for policies as waste reduction and resource recycle, and successively implemented tasks as non-landing garbage, two-day of resources recycle per week, and mandatory garbage classification. As such, the recovery rate of resources has increased from 11.09% in 2004 to 24.23% in 2009 (before the implementation of mandatory garbage classification). To further promote the task of resource recycle, the Environmental Protection Bureau has begun to strive for subsidies from EPA in 2009 as it facilities the project of "Waste Reduction and Resource Recycle Work Plan for Year 2009", which will, on one hand, continue to increase the recovery rate of resources, but also place lowering the removal amount of garbage reduction as its work target. To facilitate "Garbage Reduction, and Improvement Measures and Promotion Project for Resource Recycle of Chiayi County for year 2014" (predecessor of this plan), the Environmental Protection Bureau has scheduled and sponsored “Garbage Reduction, and Improvement Measures and Promotion Project for Resource Recycle of Chiayi County for year 2021” (hereinafter referred to as the plan) so that it can continuously improve the work effectiveness of resource recycle in Chiayi County.
Results displayed from the four major implementations found in this plan are respectively as (1. audit, 2. promotion, 3. improvement, and 4. assessment). (1) Based on the specifications of Waste Abandonment Cleanup Act to handle and coach the designated industry for counseling, control, and promotion work, 2,2784 of the operators are implemented of designated auditing, 127 removed from the control list (closed out of business), and the rest in compliance with regulations; (2) 113 sessions of waste source reduction, publicity activities for resource recycle (briefing introduction), and on-job educational training were sponsored, whereas 12,305 people participated. Among them, a total of 64,824 kilograms were recycled in 95 sessions of resource recycle and redemption activities. Meanwhile, 46 posts were posted on self-media platform (Facebook fan page of carbon reduction, Chiayi), of which the click through rate (CTR) of video has reached a total of 100,000 viewers, with 11 posts seen on bureau’s website and 23 articles related results covered in the news; (3) Besides, 10 recycle facilities were set up at construction sites around the county and a total of 6,522 kg had been recovered. Also, 10 reverse recycling facilities were established at 10 pesticide dealers with a total 6,008 kg being recycled. In addition, the bureau has assisted 3 schools to set up environmental protection clubs and recruited 292 students for participation. Through their creativity, it has inspired the strength and power of resource recycle on campus, so that students can better understand and practice resource recycle and classification, thus achieving the goal that students and their families can respond to recycle work hand in hand.
For the aspect of community, 3 new resource recycle stations in villages and neighborhoods are additional set up, and they help 53 collection stations to continue handling resource recycle and redemption activities over the years; as such, a total of 192,755 kilograms were recovered. Besides, the Environmental Protection Bureau has promoted the prohibited use of disposable products for recyclable containers, in the hope that the general public can change consumption patterns through prohibition, and develop the habit to carry tableware for meals and drinks on their own. Since its implementation in August, the amount of paper lunch-box has been reduced by 2,106 portions, an equivalent to 23.17 kilograms in terms of carbon emissions. As for the overall waste volume before the implementation of policy by the Environmental Protection Bureau, daily waste volume was 5.8kg and resource recyclables 3.9kg, of which paper tableware amounts to 1 kg. After the implementation, the daily waste volume was reduced by 20% and resource recyclables by 45%, of which tableware was reduced to 0.3 Kilograms. As indicated, it reveals the decreasing trend of overall volume for garbage with the prohibited use of disposable tableware as well as environmental-friendly delivery. On the other hand, the speed of dismantling is far behind than that of replacement with regard to the needs of the general public to replace mattress. Hence, resource collection stations in some township and municipal office have accumulated mountains of waste mattress. Therefore, these townships and municipalities sponsored the fun competition to dismantle spring beds, so that they can exchange dismantle experiences among 18 township and municipal offices to improve dismantling mattress to help with dismantle efficiency and achieve the goal as "even if hindered to dismantle spring mattress, cleaning squad can jointly it apart." Time before, it takes, as an average, 20-30 minutes for a person to dismantle a connected mattress, but with a shovel loader a mattress can be dismantled in 5 to 6 minutes, an overall efficiency increased by 5 times. In the past, when dismantling was done manually, it was most labor and time consuming. On average, only 15 pieces could be dismantled a day, but now if shovel loader is used at least 50 pieces could be dismantled a day.
(4) Assist the Environmental Protection Bureau to work with resource recycle performance assessment by EPA so that it can have achieved the designated recycle target rate at 59% as stipulated by EPA. To this end, it has assisted in setting down the target recycle rate of resources for the county and various township and city offices, making application of addition and subtraction policies as it employs strategies to increase resource recycle and garbage reduction. In this year, we will conduct audit by vehicle follow-up and bag-breaking inspections along 24 garbage removal routes throughout the county, schedule to handle preliminary review of resource recycle plans for township and city offices, and conduct resource recycle performance review meetings by EPA as well as on-site surveys to strengthen the policy for resource recycle and source reduction (garbage reduction) among towns and cities of the county. In view of this project, each and every work category is implemented according to contract requirements. As a result, the resource recycle rate has reached 60.00% from January to December this year, and the target set by EPA has already been achieved. As for waste removal volume, the amount has come to 55,941 metric tons, which was reduced by 1,550 metric tons as compared to 57,491 metric tons in the same period last year, a reduction rate of 2.77%. Based on the results of implementation towards various tasks this year, this plan should like to summarize various difficulties of implementation, and propose adjustments and suggestions for the project next year as approaches to promote waste reduction and resource recycle to continuously improve the measures for the county’s performance.
