The declaration of waste disposal policy has been gradually modified from "incineration first, supplemented by landfill" to the "complete sorting, zero waste". The transition has echoed the international trend, also changed the traditional "technology-based, end-of-pipe” thinking. Then, new strategies such as source reduction, recycling, recovery, extended producer responsibility, and environmental taxes etc. should have significant importance in the policy content for reaching the goals of "sound material-cycle society" or "zero-waste society". However, the contents of three waste policies (the target for assessment) are mainly inherent to discuses the previous issues such as disposal volume, incinerator construction, and compensation to neighboring public, are deviated to the purpose for achieving the goal of "complete sorting, zero waste". It is recommended to follow the policy “Complete Sorting of Garbage for Zero Waste Plan” and “Industrial Waste Control and Zero Waste Strategy” in the “Environmental Protection Three-Year Action Plan” announced in 2004 by the Environmental Protection Administration. Also, the related strategies and measures should be substantiated in the legislation. In the environmental assessment statement of this project, there are eight selected issues and seven planned scenarios are proposed and assessed. These contents and assessed results are recommended to be referred for the future legislation for waste management. As for continuation of the "complete sorting, zero-waste" policy in the “Environmental Protection Three-Year Action Plan”, 2004, we recommend the further policy statements: "The 'complete sorting, zero waste’ should be the core principle for waste management. The first priority is to implement the extended producer responsibility (EPR) strategy to promote source reduction and eco-design, then, to follow the principles of neighboring cooperation, polluter pays, internalizing the external costs, as well as the norms of relevant international conventions to establish a friendly environment of Sound Material-Cycle Society in Taiwan." As for the waste management strategies, the discarded matter (discards) and the different tiers of production chain should be considered. Taking enthusiastic attitude to comply with the international requirements (WEEE, RoHS, EuP, REACH, Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive, Kyoto Protocol, Basel Convention, etc.) is a substantial issue to concern. Then, the responsibility of waste declaration, assessment, recycling, and recovery should gradually transfer to the producers. Many international countries or the EU countries have confronted the waste related environmental problems such as import/export products, second-hand goods, and the handling of recyclable resources. Since producers create the commercial value of products, they have the best understanding of the product natures, including composition, energy use, emissions, and abandoned condition when taking back these discarded products. Products have more function features, high precision, and more complex processes than ever. It would be hard to resolve the waste disposal problems, if and only if the Government was in charge of. Therefore, the policies of extended producer responsibility (EPR) or the integrated product policy (IPP) are gradually becoming the major trends in the world recently. These new strategies have been called the key approaches for the “complete sorting, zero waste" policy. Then, the role of the Government will change for the supervision among the producers’ performances of recycling, environmental protection, financial transparency, information disclosure, in addition, the eco-design requirements, and the establishment of environmental management systems. The third parties for certificating manufacturing processes and environmental requirements have been proved as effective ways to improve the environmental performances.
