I notice that there is a lack of Recycling centers here and programs. About 90 to 95% of my garbarage can be recycled. Is there any place I can take my bottles to be recycled I fell kinda bad about just dumping in the garbarage every day
I guess you are not in Taibei City. The trash trucks here collect trash in separate categories for recycling, including two kinds of organic waste - pigfeed grade and compost grade. In other places, you could try contacting the Tzu Chi (Ciji) buddhist organisation. They have a lot of volunteers doing recycling. Also those old chappies on tricycles.
Link: Taibei City Government Department of Environmental Protection (English)
How about cd’s? I heard awhile back that Taiwan was going to start recycling used cd’s. I’ve got dozens in my apartment that I want to hand in somewhere, rather than throwing in the trash. Don’t want them to end up in the Keelung River or wherever the garbage men dump the shit.
I’ve always wondered where I can recycle batteries, since the recycling trucks won’t accept them. I mean regular batteries (AA, AAA, C, and D), not just lead-acid scooter batteries and car batteries.
Batteries are considered to be toxic waste because they contain heavy metals (especially alkaline batteries, which contain Manganese, and rechargable batteries, which usually contain Cadmium), so it is illegal to not recycle them in most Western countries. But in Taiwan, everyone that I’ve asked has told me to just throw batteries away with the regular trash.
Also, the recycling trucks in Taiwan don’t accept stryofoam (which is technically called “expanded polystyrene foam”). But I really hate to throw away strofoam with the regular trash because I’ve read that it takes more than 100,000 years for styrofoam to decompose naturally.
You can recycle pretty much anything in Taipei City.
Batteries can go to 7-eleven and most convenience stores; they usually have a bin under the counter by the cash-register.
Styrofoam is recyclable, at least in my area. The thing is they only collect it once a week. Really weird schedule: paper, organics and tin everyday, glass on Tuesday & Saturday, styrofoam and polystyrene on Thursdays.
The thing to do, if you’re not sure is just take it out and the guys on the truck will sort it out for you. You’ll figure out the schedule after a week or two.
Good luck,
CK
I saw a battery poster on the garbage truck and at the garbage truck’s right end there is like a small ugly painted gasoline maybe 2 gallon black tank for batteries.
For sure in Taipei.
Also you can give them the flouresent light tubes if they are burnt out.
The recycling trucks that come with the garbage trucks are accepting them along with old cell phones…but they don’t do anything with them except store them because they haven’t figured out how to recycle them yet. Chalk another one up to lack of implementation ability.
Hi All!
I would like to know EXACTLY which items in my garbage can be recycled and which cannot. Where can I find out?
So far, I’ve been recycling cans, bottles, plastic (water bottles, soda bottles etc) and paper. I’ve washed them and packed them into separate grocery bags. The problem is, what to do with the plastic bags and food wrappers. Can this be recycled? Sometimes the binmen take it in the recycling truck and sometimes they chuck it back at me. I don’t speak enough Chinese to ask. I also don’t recycle catsand (of course everyone is giggling at this, but it is quite embarrassing when the binmen rip open your black binbag and reveal kitty’s little treasures!!! 
).
Is there a website that details this?
Thanks for your help.
(PS: I almost got into a little tiff with the binmen last night, that’s why I need to know. Wouldn’t want to get a fine.)
Does anyone know what they REALLY do with the garbage they collect in Taipei? Do they really recycle what they claim they are recycling? I’m asking because I have to admit I just assumed it was all pretty much just for show, because I used to live in a city (that shall remain nameless here) in South Korea that also had a complicated “recycling” program. There, it was also enforced - heavy fines if you didn’t sort your garbage. However, actually, once all the separated garbage was collected, the garbagemen just threw it all together and dumped it out in the countryside. Nothing was recycled. When this was discovered, the city government explained that they hadn’t set up facilities for recycling yet, but just wanted to get the citizens used to the idea.
Needless to say, compliance with such an asinine program was low - it resulted in a lot of midnight garbage dumping.
Is Taipei the same?
[quote=“bababa”]Does anyone know what they REALLY do with the garbage they collect in Taipei? Do they really recycle what they claim they are recycling? I’m asking because I have to admit I just assumed it was all pretty much just for show, because I used to live in a city (that shall remain nameless here) in South Korea that also had a complicated “recycling” program. There, it was also enforced - heavy fines if you didn’t sort your garbage. However, actually, once all the separated garbage was collected, the garbagemen just threw it all together and dumped it out in the countryside. Nothing was recycled. When this was discovered, the city government explained that they hadn’t set up facilities for recycling yet, but just wanted to get the citizens used to the idea.
Needless to say, compliance with such an asinine program was low - it resulted in a lot of midnight garbage dumping.
Is Taipei the same?[/quote]
I was in MOS burger the other day when they were emptying the trash. The person took the recyclable waste, dumped it in the bag with the non-recyclable. End of story. 
As for what I do, at least in Taipei. I set recyclable stuff neatly outside my apartment building (newspapers, cardboard, bottles, etc) and someone comes by collecting it within a few hours - or so it seems. This helps them (with a little income, I assume) and me since I don’t have to run around finding a place to dispose of it. 
if you want to recycle use ebay
I used to be downright religious about recycling but I could never figure out the schedule so the guys on the trucks were always yelling at me. Finally I got tired of that so now my wife takes care of all the garbage problems along with everything else. About the only responsibility I have left is unrolling the condom.
A lot of people (including me) complain about different aspects of living in Taipei, but you must commend Taipei City for their recycling program. First the usuary tax on garbage in the form of buying the plastic bags with the tax already included. That is much better an idea than using land tax or sales tax or income tax for trash fees. Taxing people that don’t have home pickup for others home pickup is not fair.
Then they tell you that recycling is free of charge which forces this penny pinching society to try to recycle as much as possible. Nice reason to buy a trash compactor.
Back home in the county I live in, they just fine you if they find out you are not separating your trash.
Also, the whole trash truck with music thing is great. Daily pickup so that trash doesn’t sit on the streetside or in trash dumpsters as cockroach and rat orgy spots. Much cleaner than in my home country.
To the guy that asked if Taipei really does something with the recycling, I am curious too. I have a memory of seeing the recycling factories on the nightly news with comments about how some of the recycling they make money on, some they lose money on. I think it is real and that story about South Korea is scary and disgusting.
By the way, recycling CDs is plastic isn’t it?
[quote=“Hobart”]By the way, recycling CDs is plastic isn’t it?[/quote]I’m saving my CDs for when they start a CD recycling program. I read in the paper it was going to be soon. There’s some good stuff you can recycle out of CDs apparently – maybe the gold or something.
That’s that for the recycling program in my town (Taipei county). A lot of talk… just talk about recycling garbage and other wastes.
Yesterday evening I was refused handing in my used frying oil. As I have about 20 liters every couple of weeks it’s important for me to be able to hand it in for recycling and not having to pour it into the sewer system, but now they don’t leave me a choice.
They always accepted my oil and now nope…not anymore. What am I supposed to do, drink it? They already removed all the recepticles from some farmers to dump our kitchen waste to be used as pig feed.
Yeah, yeah, recycle…recycle my ars…
The situation is no better in Hsn-chu. I really don’t know when or where the recycling trucks show up. For most of my trash, I agree with Vannyel. Bundle up the plastic, cardboard and newspaper and just place it on the street. It will be gone in a few hours. I have been doing this for a long and it never seems to fail.
[quote=“belgian pie”]Yesterday evening I was refused handing in my used frying oil. As I have about 20 liters every couple of weeks it’s important for me to be able to hand it in for recycling and not having to pour it into the sewer system, but now they don’t leave me a choice.[/quote]You could do a Willie Nelson and convert it into biodiesel!
billingsgazette.com/index.ph … y-fuel.inc
Just joking.
I’ve been lucky regarding recycling. The two apartment complexes I’ve lived in have both had convenient separate bins for paper, plastic, metal, glass and more recently some kind of compost or pig bins.
I fear it maybe the same in Taipei. A few weeks ago, an out-of-town friend was watching the garbage guys finishing up their shift. She was just curious about the recycling system we have in the city. The two recycling trucks pulled up near the garbage truck and the bags of recycled stuff were subsiquently lobbed into the compacter along with all the other trash. She enquired about the practice and the offending guys uncomfortably said that “it’s standard practice.”
It’s hard to say whether this was a one off incident or whether it truely is standard practice. 