The Story Behind the Musical Garbage Trucks
It is about seven o’clock in the evening. The narrow streets are filled with chilly winter air, fresh but dry. Just like any other day, most people would have finished their dinner by now. The kids are heading to homework as the moms clean up the kitchen and the dads turn on the TV. Yet, there is something in the air that breaks the silent night, it was a slow melody of Beethoven’s piano piece “For Alice.” Suddenly, the streets are filled with people with trash and recyclables in their hands. They are all waiting for the musical garbage trucks to arrive. This is how most Taiwanese dispose their waste on a daily basis.
Taiwan, once called “Formosa” by the Portuguese, is located in east Asia. She is an island with a dense population of 23 million in a relatively small space of 36,000 km2. Taiwan has been well known for its OEM/ODM(Original Equipment Manufacturer/Original Design Manufacturer), electronic brands like Asus and Acer, and super high recycling rate — 55% in 2015. This amazing recycling result has been reported by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times as well. Both showcased the unique recycling pick up style performed daily in Taiwan: musical garbage trucks with residents coming out for disposal.
Having a recycling rate of 55%, Taiwan was interviewed by world-renowned media in the recent years.
In the past two decades, Taiwan has managed to greatly improve its recycling rate, from 5% (1998) to 55% (2015). How did she accomplish such achievement? What is the reason behind this rapid change? The story is much more than just the cooperation between the residents and the musical garbage trucks. Many more players were involved, and by sharing the story behind the change, Taiwan’s experience might be transferable to other parts of the world that wish to improve their recycling rates.
Back in the 1980s, Taiwan along with Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea were the well-known Four Asian Tigers. Both industrialization and globalization kicked in the engine to transform the island from a land of nature to a land of men. What was once called Formosa was no more, and the environment suffered silently during this fast-paced development.
Remember the musical garbage trucks? They were nonexistent. Waste was all over the place, by the rivers and in the mountains, and it was horrific both in sight and odor. As you can imagine, this convenience of waste disposal soon became a barrier to quality of life. People started to complain and protest about the smell and other pollution problems.
To deal with all these environmental problems raised by the rapid economic growth, the national government established the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in 1987 to find a way out. The musical garbage trucks were introduced along with many other new policies. One of the most important policies was to move from landfilling to incineration, as Taiwan has limited land space. However, burning recyclable resources like paper, plastics, and metals is not a good idea. They should be recycled.
In 1997, the average person tossed out 1.14 kg of waste per day, a number that adds up to 24,331 tons per day for the whole island. In the same year, the EPA rolled out a policy called the “Four-in-One Recycling Program,” which aims to create an economic feedback system that rewards participants for recycling. Under the 4-in-1 Recycling Program, Taiwan’s manufacturers and importers have to pay a recycling fee to the EPA and offer recycling services for their customers. This fee then becomes the recycling fund to subsidize the program. This program greatly increased the recycling rate in Taiwan, and it is a signature program when it comes to recycling policy in the world.
The number “Four” in the program represents four players: Community Residents, Local Governments, Recyclers and Collectors, and the Recycling Fund.
Residents
Habits are hard to change, but with the 4-in-1 Recycling Program in place, residents needed to recycle in their home and workplace. There were a total of 13 categories of items to be recycled, which was quite a lot compared to most places in the world. Making it more difficult was that they also had to bring out the recyclables to the garbage trucks. To overcome this situation, many organizations including NGOs, schools, institutions, communities, and more hosted environmental education events.
In the early 2000s, recycling started to become a norm as everyone experience it one way or another in their everyday life.
Taking another step further, the EPA added food waste recycling in 2005 to divert even more waste from incineration. The residents were a central part of the program because their partnership is the base for the whole program to function effectively.
Local Governments
After residents separate all the recyclables and trash, it is the job of the local governments to collect them. The collection teams drive the musical garbage trucks on a set schedule to perform the pickups. Some of them even help the residents with the disposal process. If the residents throw recyclables into trash, they can be fined by the collection team. Aside from having the collection team, the local governments also hosted many educational events during the program rollout to explain the importance of recycling as well as what to recycle. The EPA also assisted the local governments with the education programs.
Recyclers and Collectors
The collection teams from the local governments do not process the materials, the recyclers do. Recyclers are businesses that take in the recyclables and process them to be marketable materials or items. With the 4-in-1 Recycling Program in place, both the pickup and recycling businesses are regulated.
The policy makes sure the companies are processing the materials correctly and causing no harm to workers or the environment.
This solved the issue of businesses going into the recycling sector without proper treatment and methods, which created pollution problems and later prompt protests from the public.
These regulations also improved the situation that the recycling working space were smelly and messy. Additionally, land usage was better managed as recyclers can only build their plants on specific parts of the city/county. On top of the pressure to comply with governmental rules, the recyclers during the time faced intense competition as many businesses joined the recycling sector. Yet, it was a time when recycling industries bloomed in Taiwan.
Recycling Fund
All new policy needs to be backed up by monetary capital to be functional. The recycling fund serves this purpose, and it is managed by the the Recycling Fund Management Board (RFMB). The fund subsidizes the collection operation performed by local governments as well as rewarding the recyclers and collectors who meet the policy standards. The fund is designed to be adjustable to cover various situations. RFMB reviews the formula yearly and also creates verification processes to help to keep the fund running.
With all four players working hand in hand, the amount of waste dropped drastically in the past two decades. They all played important roles to make the system work.
Even today, the 4-in-1 Recycling Program is still in place to make sure that recycling is functional on a national level.
Today, Taiwan has a recycling rate over 55%. In 2015, the average waste produced per person per day dropped from 1.14 kg in 1998 to 0.37 kg. These numbers out performed most countries in the world, and they continue to improve. The story is a success due to its economic model to reward recycling. However, the true value lies in the collaboration between the government, the people, and the businesses. It was a joint effort to prevent the island from wasting space and raw materials.
As an island, resource management is crucial to sustainability, both in terms of economy and ecology.
Taiwan has showcased that recycling can be done on a large scale even with a dense population. This is both encouraging and worth sharing. Yet, a high recycling rate is not the end of Taiwan’s story. In her inauguration, Taiwan’s new president Ms. Tsai had claimed that Taiwan is now heading toward an economy of no waste, a circular model that will ensure stability and prosperity for the island. Taiwan not only has aimed to achieve zero waste by the year 2020, but the new president is also looking to build up a circular economy model.
Although there is still room for improvements, Taiwan has proven to excel at implementing a recycling program in a relatively short time, and it gives Taiwan a head start in the new journey to a circular economy.
Side Story
The 4-in-1 Recycling Program includes a recycling sign in the center as shown below. It actually resembles the Chinese character “回” (which means “return”) as it symbolized the recycling action of the whole program.
SOURCE
Taiwan’s Musical Solution To Recycling
