Constructing a Multi-Complementary Action Framework for Waste Classification: The Key to Taipei's Success
Deng Hong   Sep 10.2019
On July 1, Shanghai officially entered the compulsory era of garbage classification, and garbage classification has undoubtedly become one of the most popular topics. In the process of carrying out garbage classification work in full swing everywhere, there are also some problems such as immature garbage classification system and insufficient communication among community residents. Therefore, it is particularly important to learn from the mature garbage classification areas.China's Taipei, once facing the same dilemma as the mainland, has become one of the most attractive cities in Asia under the guidance of a very strong operational framework.

Introduction

With the rapid advancement of industrialization and urbanization, more and more garbage is produced in people's daily life. The phenomenon of garbage siege is common. According to statistics, the clearance and transportation of municipal solid waste in China increased from 25.08 million tons in 1979 to 191.4217 million tons in 2015. At one time, about 2/3 of the cities in China were surrounded by garbage. One fourth of them had no landfill sites. The accumulated land occupied by municipal solid waste dumps exceeded 500 million square meters, and the annual economic losses amounted to 30 billion yuan. Garbage disposal can easily lead to intense environmental conflicts. In recent years, neighborhood-avoidance conflicts around garbage disposal have taken place in major cities throughout the country from time to time. Increasing garbage has posed a great threat to the development of urban industry and the improvement of human settlements quality. It is imperative to declare war on garbage.   Since the beginning of June, nine ministries and commissions, such as the Ministry of Housing and Construction and the Development and Reform Commission, issued a document announcing that the municipal solid waste classification work has been started in all cities at the prefecture level and above in the country since 2019, and the waste classification has gradually triggered a heated debate. On July 1, Shanghai officially entered the compulsory era of garbage classification, and garbage classification has undoubtedly become one of the most popular topics. In the process of carrying out garbage classification work in full swing everywhere, there are also some problems such as immature garbage classification system and insufficient communication among community residents. Therefore, it is particularly important to learn from the mature garbage classification areas.

Reason to Be Selected

Taipei has a total population of 2.7 million, accounting for about 11.5% of the total population in Taiwan. The daily active population is more than 4 million. The congenital conditions of narrow and dense population and the development of urbanization make the problem of garbage disposal very prominent. Through investigation and study in Japan, Korea and other places, Taipei Environmental Protection Bureau began to introduce the method of prying waste reduction by recycling resources. After years of efforts and exploration, Taipei eventually formed a good situation in which waste classification drives resource recovery, shifting the focus of garbage work from end-to-end disposal to source reduction, and realizing garbage classification. 

In the implementation framework of waste classification in Taipei, the collaborative use of "soft measures" and "hard measures" is more conspicuous. Among them, hard measures refer to measures with legal compulsory significance, which have a strong role in the early stage of work. Soft measures, through social propaganda and education, encourage measures to make garbage classification work sustainable and feasible, and promote the long-term operation of garbage classification work in Taipei from short-term effectiveness to long-term feasibility.


Highlights:

Ⅰ.Design of Policy Framework Considering Short-term and Long-term

The long-term policy design makes the garbage classification work smoothly carried out in the early stage, and has a strong pushing force to carry out in-depth work. 

Ⅱ. Emphasizing the Joint Force of Society to Promote Work

It is clear that different subjects in garbage classification work - community residents, government, social organizations, third-party institutions, different themes have different interests. When formulating policies, we should design policies with pertinence, mobilize the initiative of the main body, and promote the further development of garbage classification work with the joint efforts of the society.

Ⅲ. Strength Relying on Community Units。Community unit is the basic unit of a city. It is not only embodied in physical space, but also in urban action. Good at mobilizing community forces is the basis for the continuous and in-depth garbage classification work.

Details

Hard measures include:

 (Ⅰ) Legal means of compulsory classification Since 1974, with the promulgation of the Waste Clearance Act as a symbol, waste disposal in Taiwan has entered the official management stage. The law imposes mandatory regulations on garbage disposal in society and the market. The general waste discharged by households is mainly recovered, removed and disposed of by the environmental protection bureaus of cities and counties. Institutions are responsible for the removal and disposal of garbage. Institutions that fail to fulfill the responsibility of removal and disposal will be fined more than NT$6,000. If the circumstances are serious, they will also face the penalty of suspension or suspension of work.

(Ⅱ) The "Three Rules" Action of Garbage Recycling

In 1994, Taipei experimented with the policy of "no landing of garbage" in Da'an District, and then promoted it throughout the city in 1996, requiring residents'garbage disposal behavior to be restricted by the government's "prescribed time" (two days in the first week, increased to five days after 2003) and "prescribed place" (designated parking collection point), requiring garbage trucks. Drive on the "prescribed route".The bureau is responsible for recovery, clearance and disposal. Institutions have the responsibility and obligation of clearance and disposal. Institutions that fail to fulfill the responsibility of clearance and disposal will be fined more than NT$6,000, and those with serious cases will also face the penalty of shutdown or shutdown.

(Ⅲ) From "Collecting with Water" to "Collecting with Bags": Benefit Driving of Waste Classification

Although the centralized cleaning of garbage solves the problem of dirty environment, it brings huge pressure of garbage incineration and air pollution. In order to reduce the rapidly rising cost of waste disposal, Taipei has built an interest adjustment mechanism of internalization of external costs through the economic means of forcing garbage charges.

Taipei also used some weak intervention measures to build up the soft restraint of residents' behavior habits.

(Ⅰ) Social publicity and education: the power of community communication

In order to make the transition of garbage classification smoothly, Taipei has carried out systematic propaganda and education. In the aspect of propaganda, one is to make video clips of garbage classification, which are repeated on TV and public places, to quickly fill up the shortboard of citizens'classification knowledge and improve the ability of garbage classification; the other is to organize human resources to organize community-based propaganda meetings, to give away special garbage bags free of charge during the transition period, so as to reduce residents' psychological conflicts.

(Ⅱ) Mobilizing the participation of market and social forces The mobilization of the market is mainly reflected in the assessment of the resource recovery management fund. The resource recovery management fund entrusts a third-party organization to assess the situation of the recycled products of each unit, and then gives subsidies accordingly.In terms of social organizations, in order to give full play to the positive role of social organizations in promoting the cause of waste classification, the government has taken the initiative to build a bridge of cooperation with them. Take the Tzu Chi Foundation, a charity for public welfare, for example. Officials will give the recycled garbage to Tzu Chi Hospital for free and classify it for recycling.

(Ⅲ) Community-based Action for All

Mobilizing community participation is an important part of waste classification in Taipei. The Taipei Environmental Protection Bureau has taken active measures to fully mobilize community participation and improve the effectiveness of resource recovery.

The formation of the garbage classification order in Taipei reflects the institutional change path of coexistence of "strong and weak intervention", but it is still dominated by "mandatory institutional change" under strong intervention. Among them, strong intervention is the most direct and effective means. In the early stage of advocating garbage classification, strong intervention means are conducive to the establishment of rules system and overcome the chaos and disorder in spontaneous state. Therefore, when the market and society can not spontaneously provide a reasonable order, effective and strong intervention based on the legal system and public interests is not only reasonable, but also very necessary. This fits Olsen's judgment: "Unless there is a small number of people in a group, or unless there is coercion or some other special means to enable individuals to act in accordance with their common interests, rational individuals seeking self-interest will not take action to realize their common or group interests." Under the condition of residents'awareness of garbage classification, Taipei has formed the basic order of garbage classification and resource recovery by means of strong intervention. 

But strong intervention needs the cooperation of weak intervention, otherwise the government will pay a high cost of institutional maintenance. The publicity and education under the weak intervention can make the public connotation under the strong intervention shell known and recognized by the public in a flexible way. Community mobilization can give full play to organizational advantages and enhance the recognition of waste classification. After the popularity of people's consciousness, the strong intervention function retreated, and the soft restraint of weak intervention became the dominant force. It should be pointed out that strong and weak interventions differ from each other in time, but there is no clear dividing line between successive interventions. They are mutually compatible.

Conclusions

To sum up, the government's construction of garbage classification order can be summarized as "strong intervention to build order, weak intervention to maintain order". It emphasizes the diversity and complementarity of interventions, especially the key mechanism of interest-driven, combined with bottom-up participation, and ultimately realizes the transformation of garbage classification from administrative-driven to benefit-driven to cultural-driven.

 



Lat: 25
Lng: 119
Type:
Region: Asia
Scale: Region
Field: Environment
City: Taipei