Serving Senior Missions: From Garbage Island to Recycling Model

Move aside politics - Taiwan's recycling program is as patriotic as it gets and is rivaling the world.

The island is small – about 1/8^th the size of the state of Colorado. (12,456 sq miles), with a population of 23,847,385 people. And it learned its lesson years ago when garbage piles filled cities and garbage dumps were nearing full capacity.

Known at the time as “Garbage Island”, Taiwan had a crisis on its hands. In 1993 nearly nothing was recycled. Two thirds of the landfills were already reaching the breaking point.

Today the streets are clean from rubbish. More trash is recycled than not. In Taipei, a whopping 67% of its trash is recycled. And citizens are proud to participate and quick to criticize (kindly remind) if you are less than exemplary in your disposal practices.

Für Elise drifts through the air each day as bright yellow garbage trucks come to your neighborhood corner, as regular as clock work, announcing their arrival. Our neighborhood trucks arrive precisely at 8:41 pm. I can set my watch by it. They have never been one minute early or late. How do they do that?? These are our neighborhood trucks, as seen from our apartment window. 8:41 pm. Right on time.

I tried to throw some trash away once, joining the cheerful neighborhood group that had gathered around the truck, but was not aware of the complex system of recyclables and cute colored bag schemes. That’s where the cuteness vanished. Someone from the crowd quickly came to my side and, loudly gesturing, explained, I guess, what the procedures for proper disposal were. Of course, I didn’t understand a word.

In addition to the trucks, there are bins of various colors and sizes and for various purposes. I learned I was to use a specific type of blue plastic bag for regular trash, which would go into the truck. Then I was to pour my pre-sorted glass, paper, cardboard, cans and plastic into various other bins. My raw food waste was to go into a blue plastic barrel (no bags – just the food – people were opening tied up plastic bags and emptying the slurried contents into the barrel) – and the cooked food waste into another.

If that wasn’t complicated enough, the recycling then gets sorted into metal, aluminum, paper plates, plastic containers, batteries, car parts, tires, batteries, computer parts, electrical parts, etc. There are 33 various recycling categories processed in more than 1600 recycling centers all over the island!

The raw food gets collected and processed into fertilizer for farmers. The cooked food gets turned into farm animal feed.

My head dizzied in response to the process and the assertive explanations by my Neighborhood Watch "friend". I’m afraid I’m not quite “there” yet. Feeling embarrassed, I've just thrown our trash in the Church dumpsters ever since.....crazy Americans!

In Taipei City, to encourage people to engage in these programs, you have to pay for the blue colored bags for general household trash. But if you dump recycling items – there is no cost. The more you recycle, the less you pay. It works. Most of the time.

For those caught infringing the rules, there is public shaming and hefty fines waiting.

Recycling and going organic are extremely popular here. There’s a sense of patriotism about it all. No insecticides, no chemicals, no plastic wastes, cleaner streets, healthier people. They are generally very proud of their progress and success as a nation.

The poor and elderly collect recyclables for extra cash. Photo below - not far from where we live, this motorcycle-turned-recycling-truck daily converges on this spot to collect recyclables from the neighbors to turn in for extra cash.

Below: another collection point not far from our apartment: (by the way - the Taiwan Mango Snowflake Ice place as seen in the photo is highly recommended if you ever come to Taiwan!)