Taipei,A City Without Garbage

Anchor: Garbage collection and disposal have long been a headache for city planning. However, the city of Taipei has taken pride in its victory over trash.

In the Urban Best Practices Area at the Expo, the Taipei Case Pavilion demonstrates its garbage recycling system, attracting great attention from mainland visitors.

Chen Zhe talked to its director to learn about Taipei's achievements.

Fourteen years ago, Taipei was like many cities in the mainland, with garbage thrown into garbage cans for sanitation workers to collect and most trash being buried or burned. The process leads to environmental pollution and a huge waste of recyclable resources.

In 1996, when nearly 3,000 tons of garbage was being buried in Taipei every day, the city implemented a strict garbage collection system. Under the new system, garbage is collected daily and not left on the ground.

Director of the Taipei Case Pavilion Chen Qing'an explains.

"The collection method requires residents to dispose their garbage only into garbage trucks which come to residential areas at certain hours every day. No dustbins are provided in these areas."

Chen Qing'an says the new collection method has helped clean up the environment and laid a sound foundation for a garbage recycling system.

To reduce and reuse garbage, Taipei implemented a system of "Per-Bag Trash Collection Fee" in July 2000.

Since then, citizens have been required to dispose of their non-recyclable waste in designated bags sold by the local government. A bag with a capacity of 3.3 liter waste costs around 3.3 yuan.

"The designated bags are environmentally- friendly. In order to save money, citizens have to sort their garbage and put non-recycle waste into the special bags."

Thanks to the new plan, Taipei's household-garbage volume fell 67 percent from 2000 to 2009 to around 1000 metric tons per day.

Over the same period, the volume of recycled materials grew from just 2.4 percent of total waste to 45 percent.

"Of course, the public complained about the plan at the very beginning. But they now pay only one fifth of the amount of waste fees in the past. They also enjoy a better environment."

To maximize recycled materials, Taipei has included everything with the potential for reuse in its "recyclable" category.

For example, kitchen leftovers are fed to pigs or composted. Old furniture is repaired by skilled teams and then sold to residents who need them at a lower price. Ash from garbage incinerators is used as an additive when making concrete and surfacing roads.

Now, almost nothing is "garbage" to Taipei residents.

Director Chen Qing'an tells us the key to achieving the success.

"It took a long time. Since 1990, we've started educating people, especially primary school students, about garbage sorting. Their involvement in the cause has also influenced their parents. The government's support of garbage sorting and recycling has never stopped."

To achieve the goal of "zero landfill" in 2010, the local government plans to implement a mandatory garbage sorting system. People who fail to separate recyclable and non-recyclable waste will be punished under the program.

For CRI, I'm Chen Zhe.