Last month, several local news platforms, including the Liberty Times (Chinese-language sister paper of the Taipei Times), reported that a newly-married Taiwanese man had used social media to ask how other people dispose of biandang (便當, bento) lunchboxes once they’ve eaten the contents.
During his bachelor existence, he admitted, he always threw empty bento boxes in with other non-recyclable solid trash. After his wedding, however, his wife instructed him to clean food containers thoroughly using dishwashing liquid, wait for them to dry out and then separate them for recycling.
Curious if this was a common practice, he posted a question in a Taiwan-centric Facebook group with 732,000 members.
Photo: Steven Crook
The responses were numerous and varied. Some people agreed with the man’s wife. Her approach, according to Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), is correct.
Other netizens insisted that lunchboxes (which are made of a special cardboard coated on one side with wax or a plastic film, so the box doesn’t absorb or leak liquids from the food) can’t be recycled. And around 80 percent of those who commented said they weren’t in the habit of removing food scraps and grease from meal containers so they could be properly processed.
At first glance, this dismal lack of consumer cooperation is hard to reconcile with statistics issued by the EPA’s Recycling Fund Management Board.
Photo: Steven Crook
PUBLIC AWARENESS
According to the board, which was established by the EPA in 1998 to draft regulations and pay out subsidies, efforts to bolster public awareness and improve waste-handling systems have had significant success. Official data show that, between 2017 and last year, the recycling rate for paper tableware such as bento boxes, bowls and coffee cups rose from 44 percent to over 85 percent. The total quantity recycled last year, 159,897 tonnes, was almost double that of 2019.
On May 13 this year, the Liberty Times reported that, to incentivize the recycling of tableware, the per kg subsidy for such material had been upped from NT$7.25 to NT$7.86, and payments to self-employed collectors of recyclables had also been increased.
Photo: Wang Shu-hsiu, Taipei Times
As recently as late 2018, only one company in Taiwan had the ability to separate the cardboard component of bento boxes from the plastic film, turn the former into pulp (some of which becomes environmentally-friendly toilet paper) and the latter into polyethylene (PE) pellets for reuse. Since then, Miaoli-based Lien Tai Paper Corp has been joined by Cheng Loong Corp in Hsinchu County and Chung Hwa Pulp Corp in Taitung County, boosting the country’s annual recycling capacity for this kind of material to 249,600 tonnes.
A report in the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) — published on June 5, 2019, soon after Taiwan’s second tableware recycling facility had begun operations — asserted that whether or not tableware is separated, “more than 70 percent of it ends up in the incinerator, burned together with general garbage.”
However, the EPA is probably right when it describes (on an English-language page on its Web site) current recycling capacity as “ample.”
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsun, Taipei Times
According to the UDN report, the number of paper tableware items used each year in Taiwan tops eight billion. If half of them are lunchboxes, which usually weigh between 30g and 41g, and the other half are cups, each weighing around 16g, nine billion items shouldn’t exceed the capacity of the three recycling plants.
Last year, the EPA Web site says, around 2,900 lunchbox suppliers completed the installation of recycling facilities. These take the form of dedicated tableware receptacles, and notices that remind customers to put food scraps and disposable chopsticks elsewhere. Participating businesses receive one-off subsidies of up to NT$6,500. Measures announced at the beginning of this year will extend this program.
BETTER SOLUTIONS?
Photo: Yang Mian-chieh, Taipei Times
This is progress, for sure. Yet used bento boxes are often trucked a considerable distance — Tainan, for instance, is over 200km from the nearest recycling plant — and processing them requires significant amounts of electricity and water. Could there be a better solution than the one the EPA has devised?
Compostable tableware sounds like a good alternative. Several Taiwanese companies make cups, cutlery, plates, straws and other items that they claim are compostable.
You have to read the fine print, of course. Bamboo fiber sounds like an eco-friendly material, but typically the manufacturing process involves strong chemical solvents and acids.
PLA, a popular bioplastic that’s often described as biodegradable, is also problematic. In a Sept. 27, 2018 article, CommonWealth magazine pointed out that, “because PLA is hard to distinguish from other plastics, it can be easily mixed with other plastics for recycling, with bad consequences. The presence of PLA can plug up recycling machines, hurting productivity and, because of its biodegradable nature, the recycled plastic is virtually unusable and has to be dumped and incinerated like regular garbage.”
The accidental mixing of PLA and petroleum-based plastics continues to be a problem, according to a May report in the Liberty Times. What’s more, because only one recycling company in Taiwan has the ability to process PLA, a mere 6 percent of the 6,000-plus tonnes of PLA produced in the country last year was recycled.
As for claims that PLA is biodegradable, the newspaper pointed out that it only decomposes when the temperature stays between 58 and 70 degrees Celsius, with 90-percent humidity. In other words, it won’t break down in your home compost pile.
The only long-term solution is to drastically reduce the use of single-use products. The EPA seems to recognize this, but its efforts to educate the public haven’t had a big impact on behavior. Those who bring their own chopsticks and spoons when eating out are still a minority.
Perhaps it’s time to start making diners pay for disposable tableware — and not just the NT$1 or NT$2 per item that Taipei City Government now charges at hospitals, tourist attractions and sports venues under its control. Would a levy of NT$20 per disposable bento be enough to persuade you to use a Tupperware-type container, or maybe a retro tiffin box?
Steven Crook, the author or co-author of four books about Taiwan, has been following environmental issues since he arrived in the country in 1991. He drives a hybrid and carries his own chopsticks. The views expressed here are his own.
Opening up the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Centers for Disease Control (CDC) pages on vaccines for COVID-19 will teach a simple fact: Not a single COVID-19 vaccine currently in use has completed the formal US FDA approval process. Instead, all vaccine approvals have been via an emergency use authorization (EUA) prior to completion of the Phase III data collection and analysis. The US permits manufacturers to present interim results for the Phase III process to gain approval. Indeed, the AstraZeneca vaccine, which flows through this writer’s veins, isn’t approved in the US at all. Let that put
Aug. 9 to Aug. 15 When Wang Chiu-hwa (王秋華) announced that she wanted to be an architect, her mother responded, “Perhaps you can marry an architect and help him sharpen his pencils.” It was the early 1940s, and women were virtually unheard of in the profession in China. So Wang didn’t pursue her dream in China, nor did she after she fled with her parents to Taiwan in 1949 following the Chinese Civil War. She did, however, earn a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University that year and spent the next three decades working in New York City with Percival Goodman
For much of the year, Kaohsiung’s residents enjoy a sunny climate. When the weather becomes inhospitable, the city’s various museums are a good option. A ONCE-MIGHTY INDUSTRY Taiwan’s centuries-old sugar trade entered the industrial era in 1902, when a state-of-the-art sugar-processing facility in what’s now Kaohsiung’s Ciaotou District (橋頭) began operations. This 20-hectare complex hasn’t produced any sugar since 1999, but it remains largely intact. Renamed the Taiwan Sugar Museum (台灣糖業博物館), it preserves not only various buildings but also agricultural machinery and several narrow-gauge locomotives. Near the sidings where the rolling stock is kept, a former warehouse contains several exhibits. This isn’t
Last month, several local news platforms, including the Liberty Times (Chinese-language sister paper of the Taipei Times), reported that a newly-married Taiwanese man had used social media to ask how other people dispose of biandang (便當, bento) lunchboxes once they’ve eaten the contents. During his bachelor existence, he admitted, he always threw empty bento boxes in with other non-recyclable solid trash. After his wedding, however, his wife instructed him to clean food containers thoroughly using dishwashing liquid, wait for them to dry out and then separate them for recycling. Curious if this was a common practice, he posted a question
where to buy generic cialis online safely side effects for tadalafil
what is tadalafil cheap generic cialis for sale
https://cialisedot.com/ tadalafil generic where to buy
generic cialis online fast shipping where to get tadalafil
where to buy generic cialis online safely side effects of tadalafil
https://cialismat.com/ generic tadalafil from uk
tadalafil cialis side effects of tadalafil
cialis without a prescription tadalafil drug
tadalafil liquid where to buy tadalafil on line
buy tadalis tadalafil order online no prescription
tadalafil blood pressure tadalafil generic
https://cialisbusd.com/ cheap cialis pills for sale
tadalafil goodrx tadalafil without a doctor prescription
tadalafil online with out prescription best price usa tadalafil
https://cialisedot.com/ what is tadalafil
where to buy generic cialis online safely tadalafil brands
cheapest tadalafil cost https://cialisusdc.com/
what is tadalafil best price usa tadalafil
lowest price cialis prescription tadalafil online
https://nextadalafil.com/ side effects of tadalafil
tadalafil generic where to get tadalafil
buy tadalafil tadalafil dosage
https://cialistrxy.com/ tadalafil dosage
tadalafil without a doctor prescription https://nextadalafil.com/
tadalafil side effects generic cialis tadalafil
https://cialisicp.com/ lowest price cialis
buy cialis tadalafil side effects
generic cialis tadalafil buy generic cialis online with mastercard
https://cialismat.com/ prescription tadalafil online
what is tadalafil https://nextadalafil.com/
ivermectin generic name ivermectin 0.5%
viagra canada drugstore prescription viagra usa
ivermectin usa ivermectin 3mg
ivermectin for sale cost of ivermectin 1% cream
generic stromectol buy ivermectin stromectol
prescription tadalafil online tadalafil daily online
ivermectin 400 mg stromectol tablets uk
stromectol australia ivermectin buy nz
ivermectin cost ivermectin 400 mg
ivermectin 1%cream stromectol medication
stromectol 3mg stromectol online pharmacy
cialis pharmacy liquid tadalafil reviews
stromectol online canada ivermectin 3mg dosage
free viagra samples sildenafil 20 mg how many should i take
sildenafil 50 mg buy online sildenafil costs
cialis prescription cialis pills
can i buy viagra in mexico viagra usa online
pharmacy technician resume canadian pharmacy online ship to usa
tadalafil 10mg online ordering tadalafil online
shopko pharmacy walmart pharmacy near me
rite aid 24 hour pharmacy store locator why are prescription drugs so much cheaper in canada
levitra 40 mg canada levitra canada
cialis free trial no prescription free coupon for cialis
viagar vs cialis cialis 20mg sell
topical ivermectin rosacea ivermectin acne
viagra in india price how much is a 100mg viagra pill
pharmacy tech salary canada uk pharmacy online
ivermectin horse order stromectol over the counter
cialis same as tadalafil mylan tadalafil vs cialis
otc viagra united states no prescription cheap viagra
find cialis online cialis price australia
canadian pharmacies peoples pharmacy discount pharmacy mexico
levitra advertising best price for levitra 20 mg
levitra and viagra together levitra patient assistance
buy cialis 365 pills cialis coupon free trial
online pharmacy in india putney general store pharmacy
canadian pharmacy medications safe and affordable drugs from canada act
narcotics online pharmacy canadian pharmacy coupon code 2016
pain meds online pharmacy are canadian online pharmacies legit
reputable online pharmacy canada prescription drugs facts
selling prescription drugs canada rx
modafinil without prescription cost modafinil 100mg
modafinil 100mg for sale buy provigil online cheap order modafinil 200mg for sale
erythromycin gel erythromycin brand
order modafinil 200mg modafinil order online
purchase provigil without prescription provigil 200mg for sale
order modafinil 200mg sale order provigil 200mg pills
cheap provigil oral modafinil 100mg provigil 200mg oral
http://erythromycinn.com/# erythromycin generic name
why Do People Take Cialis?
is erythromycin a penicillin erythromycin and acne
canadian pharmaceuticals online safe
Great post, keep up the good work, I hope you don’t mind but I’ve added on my blog roll.
I don’t normally comment but I gotta say appreciate it for the post on this one : D.
I love your blog. It looks every informative.
Hey! awesome blog! I happen to be a daily visitor to your site (somewhat more like addict 😛 ) of this website. Just wanted to say I appreciate your blogs and am looking forward for more!
modafinil 100mg cost buy provigil 200mg
erythromycin ophthalmic ointment usp 0.5 erythromycin spectrum
you’re in reality a just right webmaster. The web site loading velocity is incredible. It sort of feels that you’re doing any distinctive trick. In addition, The contents are masterpiece. you’ve performed a great process on this topic!
provigil pill
erythromycin ophth oint 3.5gm erythromycin 500 mg price
what Is Black Cialis?
is erythromycin a sulfa drug erythromycin online
what Are The Dosage For Cialis?
provigil 200mg cheap
This has to be one of my favorite posts! And on top of thats its also very helpful topic for newbies. thank a lot for the information!
erythromycin spectrum azithromycin and erythromycin
canadian drug pharmacy comfortis without vet prescription
Cialis When Generic In Us?
ed meds online without doctor prescription sildenafil without a doctor’s prescription
stromectol generic
hydroxychloroquine 200mg tab https://hydroxychloroquinex.com/
This blog post is excellent, probably because of how well the subject was developed. I like some of the comments too though I could prefer we all stay on the subject in order add value to the subject!
Dude.. I am not much into reading, but somehow I got to read lots of articles on your blog. Its amazing how interesting it is for me to visit you very often. –
ivermectin 12mg buy 6mg stromectol
purchase plaquenil online generic plaquenil online
п»їviagra pills viagra pills
buy 12mg stromectol ivermectin 6 mg tablet
best place to buy viagra online viagra
Great write-up, I am a big believer in placing comments on sites to inform the blog writers know that they’ve added something advantageous to the world wide web!
I am glad to be one of the visitors on this great site (:, appreciate it for putting up.
viagra from canada viagra pills
Hiya, I am really glad I have found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish only about gossip and net stuff and this is actually frustrating.
http://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ hcq online sale
doxycycline 100mg cost in india antibiotics doxycycline
Clear, concise and easy to access.
stromectol pills ivermectin without a doctor prescription buying ivermectin online
https://amoxilforsale.best/# can i buy amoxicillin over the counter
I just sent this post to a bunch of my friends as I agree with most of what you’re saying here and the way you’ve presented it is awesome.
buy amoxicillin 500mg canada buy amoxicillin 250mg
Spot on with this write-up, I actually assume this website needs far more consideration. I will in all probability be once more to learn rather more, thanks for that info.
I have been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I never found anything that grabbed my interest as much as this piece.
buy generic hydroxychloroquine online hydroxychloroquine plaquenil 200 mg tablet
tamoxifen breast cancer prevention nolvadex only pct