Taiwan drafts new waste act

The Taiwan government’s Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has merged the Waste Disposal Act and the Resource Recycling and Reuse Act into one Waste Resource Cycling Promotion Act. Taiwan currently manages waste and renewable resources through two acts. The Waste Disposal Act strictly treats all discarded materials as waste while the Resource Recycling and Reuse Act holds flexible criteria of renewable resources according to economic and technical feasibility of recycling and reuse in fluctuation with the market and other factors. These inconsistencies in waste and renewable resource management systems have posed difficulties for businesses according to the EPA. The main points of this new draft act are as follows:• strengthen source reductions including green design, green production, manufacturers' recycling responsibilities, green consumption and green procurement. • re-evaluate waste resource sorting methods and classify reusable and recyclable materials as "reusables" and non-reusable and non-recyclable materials as "waste. " • implement management of enterprise resource recycling, adopting a dual-tier system based on fee collection principles and enterprises recycling their own materials. • implement polluter-pays principle by collecting funds for disposal and treatment of industry waste resources. • re-evaluate waste disposal responsibilities and establish reasonable waste disposal responsibilities. • strengthen reuse management methods with exceptions announced by the central competent authority for materials that are inappropriate for reuse due to being hazardous to human health or potentially polluting the environment. Reuse organizations should obtain a permit from competent authorities, who are required to strictly manage such affairs. • the original principles of environmental protection and sanitation in waste management have been retained with an additional article on environmental sanitation.