Food waste to join paper and plastic as material to be recycled in Taiwan

This article was written by Nikki Hsu and published by Taiwan Journal on October 15, 2004. It features Taipei City's execution of a program to turn all food waste from farming communities and public schools into organic compost.

Taipei City started charging people for garbage collection services in July 2000. This food waste recycling program, which started in October 2004, is another step towards the city's goal of achieving total recycling and zero landfill growth by 2010. Currently, approximately 65 percent of farmland in Taiwan suffers from having soil with a low organic-matter content. Since about 30 percent of all household garbage is food waste, the compost generated from this food waste recycling program will help revitalize the fertility of Taiwan's arable land. The city estimates that approximately US$1.5 million will be saved every year by turning food waste into 150,000 tons of organic fertilizer that will replace chemical fertilizers.

More details about Taipei City's food waste recycling program are provided in this article.