But there's one key to whether the medicine works: "waste sorting."

There have been a number of public service campaigns in Taipei recently. "Put the Love Back in Traffic!" is aimed at easing the transportation problems created by work on the mass rapid transit system. Naming 1990 the Year of Law and Order is part of the drive against crime. And in environmental protection, waste sorting is being actively promoted as an all-citizen activity.

Looking ahead to the completion of the Neihu incinerator in October next year, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection has directed that waste sorting be carried out in the four districts of Taipei that will be served by the incinerator--Hsinyi, Neihu, Nankang and Sungshan--starting August 1.

Why should waste be sorted?

Simply put, it helps in processing.

In the past, refuse was invariably used for compost, burned or buried. Compost heaps have no place in an increasingly urban society, and open-air burning has been relinquished because of the air pollution it creates, but the growth of waste in a prosperous, industrialized nation is usually faster than that of the population. And the places for burying are limited.

Even in the vast United States there are sometimes "wars between the states" over waste disposal. In Taiwan, which has an area of just 36,000 sq. km. yet churns out more than 18,000 tons of trash a day, finding places for burial sites that don't enrage the neighboring populace is even tougher. In Taipei County, the Tahan and Tamsui rivers have ended up as running dumps.

Fortunately, the engineers and technicians of the world haven't stood idly by and watched us all swamp ourselves in trash. Modern incinerators take up relatively little space, reduce waste to 1/20th of its original volume, cut down on air pollution and are equipped to reuse much of the energy they give off. Despite being expensive to buy and four or five times more costly to operate than conventional dumping sites, they have still proven to be an effective way of solving urban waste problems in countries around the world.

At present less than three percent of the waste in the country is processed by incinerator. The one at Neihu will have a capacity of 900 tons a day and cogenerate electricity, marking a new milestone for us in waste processing. Ten years from now, half the trash on the whole island will go into incinerators, and in densely populated urban areas like Taipei up to 80 percent.

But incinerators aren't indestructible. To prolong their life and keep them running in top condition, people have to cooperate. The key lies in waste sorting.

Chiu I-shu, a professor of environmental science at Tunghai University, says that the Hsinpu incinerator in Hsinchu County, which went into operation in 1979 and had a daily capacity of 50 tons, was the first really modern incinerator in Taiwan, but it suffered a serious malfunction in less than three years and is out of operation. An incinerator jointly used by Hsintien and Chungho in Taipei County that had a capacity of 200 tons a day and went on line in 1980 met with a similar fate after less than two years. And the Ankang incinerator in Taipei County, currently the largest on the island, has been shut down for repairs for more than a year.

The reason for the breakdowns is inadequate care. Different from the simple dumping grounds of the past, waste-processing incinerators are precision complexes, like electric generating plants, and they need expert management. Unfortunately, "once they're built, everybody treats them like big trashcans and crams in all kinds of stuff. No wonder they conk out so quick!" Chiu I-shu says.

According to a study by Yang Wan-fa, a professor in the Institute of Environmental Engineering at National Taiwan University, 35 percent of Taipei's solid waste consists of paper products, 20 percent of plastic, 20 percent of kitchen garbage and 10 percent of glass and metal.

Paper is a recyclable resource. The efforts of environmental groups to promote the use of recycled paper have seen positive results in recent years, and books bearing the words "no trees have been hurt by this publication" have won the support of readers.

Other resources in waste can be recycled too, but people have lacked an economic incentive to separate them.

In recent years the Environmental Protection Administration has promoted a program to encourage manufacturers to recycle aluminum cans, plastic bottles and other recoverable items. It has also had spacemen trashcans that "eat" recyclable items installed on street corners in local communities so that everyone can help out by pitching in.

Manufacturers have formed a joint venture called the Rebirth Corp. to turn recycled plastic bottles into inflatable rafts, water tanks and so forth, and with profits to be had, they have been much more willing to work together and come up with new ways of recycling.

The problem remains that even the best incinerator can't handle everything. Ordinary household trash has noxious metals and chemicals, such as the mercury in mirrors and fluorescent lights and the chemicals left in pesticide spray cans. They have been classified as burnables in the present program, but no matter how thoroughly a battery is incinerated, the mercury remains. It just changes into a vapor and pollutes the ground after it cools and settles.

A number of communities in Yokohama and Sapporo, Japan, have specially stipulated that people separate batteries, thermometers and the like from ordinary trash so they can be processed together and prevent the spread of harmful pollutants. Household refuse is much harder to track down and manage than industrial waste, but it all adds up to a big problem.

The current campaign to sort waste is not the first of its kind in the R.O.C Environmental agencies and groups have always been urging the public to do it. But in past experience, even though people hardly need do more more than lift a finger, the results have been none too conspicuous.

That is the reason that people have to start acting now, before the Neihu incinerator goes into operation, says Lu Ch'i-wen, a researcher at the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection. After twenty years of promotion, waste sorting in Japan has reached an effectiveness of just fifty percent. We naturally don't expect to jump from zero to one hundred percent at one go. "But we can certainly advance gradually by ten or twenty percent," Lu Ch'i-wen says.

But besides encouraging the public to sort out their trash, it is also important that authorities implement corresponding measures, such as setting up channels to process noxious wastes and recycle wastes with resource value. Otherwise, even if everyone is willing to lift a finger and pitch in, their efforts will all go to waste.

[Picture Caption]

(Left) To reach the goal of having 50 percent of our solid waste treated by incineration in ten years, incinerators are being built around the island. Shown here is the Ankang incinerator that treats waste from Hsintien and Yungho in Taipei County.

Waste sorting reduces wear and tear on incinerators.

(Right) Not sorting waste shortens an incinerator's operating life.

(Left) In order to use incinerators to deal with the trash problem, it i s necessary for people to separate their trash. But many people are still used to just piling it all up together.

The Environmental Protection Administration has been actively promoting waste recycling. At left is a green spaceman that specializes in eating glass bottles. At center is a recycling trashcan in the Ta-an public housing complex. At right is some waste sorting going on at the faculty residences of National Taiwan University.

Waste sorting reduces wear and tear on incinerators.

（Right） Not sorting waste shortens an incinerator's operating life.

（Left） In order to use incinerators to deal with the trash problem, it i s necessary for people to separate their trash. But many people are still used to just piling it all up together.

At left is a green spaceman that specializes in eating glass bottles.

At center is a recycling trashcan in the Ta-an public housing complex.

The Environmental Protection Administration has been actively promoting waste recycling. At left is a green spaceman that specializes in eating glass bottles. At center is a recycling trashcan in the Ta-an public housing complex. At right is some waste sorting going on at the faculty residences of National Taiwan University.