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Southeast Asia looks to Taiwan as recycling pioneer

by Rina Chandran | @rinachandran | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 20 June 2019 15:46 GMT

ARCHIVE PHOTO: An employee collects plastic bottles at a garbage recycling centre in Managua June 3, 2014. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

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'Taiwan didn't do anything mystical; it just developed good policy based on the experiences of others'

By Rina Chandran

BANGKOK, June 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Once dubbed "garbage island" for its overflowing landfills and filthy streets, Taiwan now has Asia's highest rate of recycling and is a role model for the region, analysts said on Thursday.

With untreated waste causing marine pollution and clogged drains triggering fatal floods from Bangkok to Manila, Southeast Asian cities should look to Taiwan's success in reducing and recycling waste, they said.

"Taiwan didn't do anything mystical; it just developed good policy based on the experiences of others," said Nate Maynard at Taiwan's Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.

"If Southeast Asian countries adopted the same core principles, then they could develop their own models that work."

Reducing waste is becoming a global priority amid growing calls for more aggressive action on climate change and plastic pollution, particularly in urban areas which the United Nations projects will house 60% of the global population by 2030.

Environmentalists asked leaders at the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit to create a "sustainable and ethical circular economy" that reduces the harmful impacts of poor waste management amid rapid growth.

"Countries should be thinking about reducing consumption of plastic, redesigning products to reduce waste, and more recycling," said Penchom Saetang at advocacy group Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand.

"We have seen the devastating impacts of improper waste management on communities. The price we pay in terms of loss of health, land and clean drinking water is incalculable."

Taiwan's reforms were kickstarted by residents in the capital Taipei who protested the city's inaction on waste management two decades ago, resulting in "pay-as-you-throw" taxes, where charges depend on the amount of rubbish produced.

Pre-sorted waste is also handed to musical garbage trucks that make the rounds five nights a week, while citizens and businesses are encouraged to generate less waste, with stringent penalties for violations, waste experts said.

"Taiwan did all this at a time of relatively lower economic development, and without a long history of environmentalism. The movement was driven by grassroots efforts and public protests," said Maynard.

Taiwan now recycles about 55% of its municipal solid waste - the second highest rate globally, said Grayson Shor, a circular economy consultant to the U.S. government-funded American Institute in Taiwan.

Its per capita daily waste generation has fallen nearly 20% in two decades, with landfill sites being converted into parks and community centres, he added.

"Taiwan has been able to do this as a result of its green technology and design innovations in public education," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"It is ... easily transferable to other Asian countries."

(Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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