Maybe some or many people don’t know and don’t care, but picking up discarded items from dumpster or trash bin is illegal.
Waste Disposal Act
Article 27 The following acts are strictly prohibited within designated clearance areas.
IV.The collection from waste clearance, disposal or storage tools, equipment or sites of articles that have been discarded
Taiwan has a lot of laws. There are no shortages of them. Enforcement is intentionally selective. That should be more eye opening to people.
To be fair im not ging to study waste disposal law here. But for those that read this: is it then illegal for the private recycle trucks and food waste trucks to pick up stuff? How about gov trucks? Makes me recall a few years back here in the sticks that you couldnt dump stuff anymore in a community spot. You had to physically throw it into the truck (still do). Makes sense actually, liabilities be gone!
Before there were oftwn a few spots in a town where you threw piles of shit and they came to pick it up. I think it was during president Chens term that changed , maybe Ma. Wonder if that is why?
More importantly, can i sue grandma for touching my bags of trash? Thats the important issue!
There’s also the Amahs and Agongs that frequent the rubbish bins for stuff to collect.
Interesting. “Designated clearance areas” basically just excludes undeveloped areas apparently.
No, it goes on to make an exception for such things, if they have received official approval. But unapproved efforts to collect stuff from “waste clearance, disposal or storage tools, equipment or sites” does seem to be forbidden.
Does it also dictate by whom designates such sites? Cny is still jst starting. Not enough Gaoliang to read it yet. Maybe tomorrow when when lack of sleep and alcohol poisoning is crippling the competition i will be eager to read up on these trash collecting laws 
already starting to get curious but card games are hard to leave the table to read.
News to me!
Like I said in the ‘pro-tip’ tread that has been nuked:
Many laws in Taiwan have been adopted from Germany. Dumpster diving is illegal there.
Trash is still the property of the person who threw it out until it is picked up by the authorized waste disposal company. So technically you can be sued for theft if you pick up those discarded items.
So have a look at the laws linked in the OT and decide if it is worth the risk. Especially if you read threads like this:
Taking things from property has always been illegal. If trash is the topic of discussion it is logically assumed it is trash in the curb. Aka on public grounds. Obviously trash on private property is theft, as it always has been because you cannot tell with 100% certainty the owner doesnt want it. First you are trespassing, then you are taking items that belong to someone else. Common sense.
So is this law stating the obvious or stating a public service law where stuff dumped on public land cannot be taken? More curious now…but laws made for morons seems more and more common now 
Ask Taiwan Luthier, he knows.
That’s why we should leave our beer cans wherever we finish drinking them so they don’t have to break any laws by picking them up.
people dumping trash is the mountain is illegal? when the street is wider and you can park the car is where more trash people dump 