Environmental Revolution in the Kitchen--Turning Food Waste into a Resource

At the end of 2003, in a taxi on Taipei's streets, one could hear the radio broadcast hosts joking: "We're supposed to sort kitchen waste, but the grandma says she's not clear on how to sort it. Just give it to the young people to take care of. Office workers say they can't make it back home in time for the pick-up, so forget it. As for foreign brides, raising pigs, compost-it's all beyond them."

To be sure, Taipei residents have mixed feelings about the coming era of kitchen waste recycling. Some housewives who are willing to accommodate the measures have already prepared two containers, slowly getting themselves habituated to dividing scraps into fruit peels, egg shells, vegetable cuttings, and table leftovers. Older people point out that recycling kitchen waste can save on the expense of buying trash bags, which is a good thing. Some people hold opposing points of view, believing that the recycling of food waste will cause bad odors.

The recycling measures being implemented include the following: the public must first divide kitchen waste into two categories-one for pigswill and one for compost. Then they must place the divided scraps into the barrels on garbage collection trucks. However, the new system is not compulsory as is the use of designated trash bags-there will be no penalties if people choose not to recycle their kitchen waste. But if regular garbage is mixed in with kitchen waste and placed in the kitchen waste recycling barrels, offenders will be punished. Sanitation workers will each day collect kitchen waste as they collect garbage. The kitchen waste collected on that day will be temporarily stored at transit stations, where transport companies hired by compost makers will deliver them to composting sites during the night or early morning.

Besides the public's complaints that how to sort waste is not clearly defined and that the collection procedure is inconvenient, environmental groups are concerned that instituting the policy without adequate supporting measures-giving rise to problems such as insufficient publicity, the failure to purchase dedicated vehicles for collecting kitchen waste, and the still-incomplete state of processing sites-will undermine its effectiveness.

Despite these reservations, the Taipei City Bureau of Environmental Protection continues to stress that during the three-year trial run with kitchen waste recycling, city residents have responded favorably, and various preparations for full implementation have been made. Bureau director Chen Yung-jen confidently declares that if we don't do it today, we will never start.

The media is rife with coverage, with the focus largely on problems that residents are having in classifying and collecting their kitchen waste-or the unpleasant odors that emanate during the disposal process. However, other aspects of kitchen waste recycling, though relatively overlooked, are in fact more complicated: the composting sites, which form the heart of the system, the quality of the compost, and, at the back end, the compost distribution channels. According to many environmental groups, experience with kitchen waste recycling in rural communities shows that during the initial stages, residents were unclear about what was to be recycled, and as a result kitchen wastes were provided without first draining them, or items such as stray toilet paper, chopsticks, and plastic bags were often found mixed in. This type of front-end problem with the collection system is relatively easy to correct using instruction and appropriate adjustments. The real headache turns out to be with the downstream processes.

Just like the situation faced by other domestic resource recycling programs, problems with kitchen waste recycling in the area of processing technologies and in the distribution of secondary materials are the main factors behind Taiwan's failure up to now to designate kitchen waste for recycling.

This is the natural composting method utilized in Taipei County's Pinglin Township. Workers are mixing kitchen waste with wood shavings and rice hulls. After stirring, the mixture is allowed to naturally ferment and is regularly turned to aid the work of aerobic bacteria.

The garbage wars

"Before 1984, there were no garbage policies," says Chen Hsiung-wen, head of the EPA's Department of Waste Management, recalling the evolution of garbage policies. He points out that in earlier years, garbage was dumped or buried by each township or village, with little concern for sanitation. By the 1980s, with the rapid development of Taiwan's economy, garbage volumes increased greatly as the population concentrated in urban centers, finally resulting in the formulation of garbage policies in response. In the beginning, burial was primarily used, but after a few years, landfill sites became increasingly difficult to come by. Affected residents would protest, and wars over garbage emerged between counties and cities. Therefore, in 1991, the "primarily incineration, secondarily burial" garbage disposal policy was proposed.

"Around the end of the 1980s, the government began promoting resource recycling," Chen says. From various kinds of containers in the early stages to tires, batteries, washing machines, and air conditioners later, over the past ten-plus years, 32 types of items in 15 categories have been announced as targets for recycling. As kitchen waste had not been among the items announced for recycling, the way it had been handled over the years had been to burn it in incinerators along with other garbage.

"Resource recycling cannot rely only on the government. A sound recycling regime is extremely important." Chen gives an example: Taiwan's paper recycling is quite successful, because traditional paper recycling businesses have existed for 30 or 40 years. They have not been displaced by societal changes, and have been fortunate to have their efforts be in lockstep with the new era of resource recycling. A virtuous circle has been created, not only making for an outstanding record with recycling, but also seeing vendors evolve from the use of street stalls to the construction of numerous recycling plants.

Children at Tanshui Primary School place fallen leaves into the compositing bin, and mothers from the neighborhood use it as well for recycling their kitchen waste. The school's teachers use the process by which kitchen wastes are turned into compost for teaching ecology and environmental protection. Truly many purposes are served.

Old memories of food waste barrels

In like manner, kitchen waste recycling is nothing new. Those who are middle-aged and older should remember the food waste barrel that was placed in some dark corner of every neighborhood, and the scene of children sent to dispose of leftovers scurrying away and holding their noses. As the scale of pig farming in Taiwan grew, this kitchen waste recycling scheme, with its focus on providing pigswill, gradually fell into disuse. Kitchen wastes with their unreliable quality were gradually replaced by manufactured feed, while after outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, the Council of Agriculture (COA) was even less inclined to encourage the use of kitchen waste as feed.

As for using garbage for compost, this approach also boasts a long history. In the 1970s, Taiwan built more than 20 composting sites. However, the poor quality of the compost produced from unsorted garbage made it inferior to chemical fertilizers, which were cheap and of good quality. Farmers gradually came to rely on chemical fertilizers, and processors of organic refuse went out of business as sales stagnated. At present, farmers use mostly agricultural waste such as livestock droppings or biodegradable polypropylene mushroom cultivation bags to make compost, while kitchen waste remains out of favor.

However, kitchen waste is the main source of the foul odors and disease vector proliferation in garbage. When kitchen wastes are mixed with other garbage for processing, landfills are inundated with noxious gases, polluting the air. If taken instead to incinerators, due to their high water content, much energy will be wasted in the burning process, and the lifespan of the incinerator will also be reduced. At the same time, concentrations of the toxin dioxin will be increased. If garbage can be sorted before collection, recycling rates for other types of reclaimable garbage will be greatly increased once they are freed from contamination by food waste. When all the various advantages are added up, relative to other types of recyclable resources, "the benefits of recycling kitchen waste are greater, and more important," states Turning Garbage to Gold, a book published by the Environmental Protection Administration.

In terms of eco-cycles, the significance of recycling kitchen waste is even greater: "Turning kitchen waste into compost will restore the eco-cycle that is disrupted by incinerators or landfills," points out George Cheng, executive director of the environmental group Taiwan Watch Institute. Humanity obtains nutrients from the land through plants, and should also return the unused portion to the land, avoiding the situation where the land only gives but does not get anything in return, eventually turning barren.

Looking at the effects on the handling of household garbage, one notes that kitchen waste accounts for 30% of all such garbage. Other reusable garbage, such as paper, bottles, and metals account for 50%. If all are recycled, little is left of the household garbage. "Throwing out trash once or twice a week is enough!" That has been the actual experience of many households that have recycled kitchen waste.

Although recycling of kitchen waste is quite necessary, with a number of benefits, the government was stymied by various problems in the recycling system, and so did not begin promoting such recycling until 2001. But environmentally concerned individuals and groups in the private sector had long been taking action. Through many years of technology development and dissemination, kitchen waste recycling has been instituted in many neighborhoods and schools for some time, also giving rise to a comprehensive recycling system.

Many members of the public consume kitchen waste by raising earthworms. One kilogram of earthworms can consume half to one kilogram of vegetable waste a day.

The Ilan experience

With its beautiful natural scenery, Ilan County has a strong environmental consciousness. As early as 1977, the county began experimenting with and promoting the recycling of kitchen waste. Natural Environmental Protection Foundation chairperson Liu Shu-hui and National Ilan Institute of Technology jointly developed a simple composting method suitable for use by families and neighborhoods.

Liu went on to work with Ilan-area farms, testing the effectiveness of kitchen waste composting. Taking Chang Shu-ching's Yuanshan Village farm as an example, her yields of bamboo multiplied, and she received the MOA Natural Farming Certification from the International Foundation of Nature Ecology. By 2001, not only were more than 10,000 Ilan households (a tenth of the total) using Liu's approach for handling kitchen waste, but schools and environmental groups in other cities and counties were seeking to learn from the Ilan experience, taking these methods back to their communities for implementation-and creating a trend.

If kitchen waste is mixed with other garbage and burned in incinerators, levels of dioxin will increase. In addition, the higher water content causes the incineration process to consume more energy. Currently, with the gradual implementation of the recycling system, the situation is expected to improve.

A hundred flowers bloom

Also getting an early start, Taipei's Homemakers' Union and Foundation (HUF) vigorously promoted the composting of kitchen waste. It however utilized the more natural "leaf composting" method, taking advantage of the large amounts of fallen leaves at children's play centers by using them as "starters." Beginning from ten neighborhoods, and through detailed guidance, each family was directed to take its kitchen waste to a kitchen waste barrel in a designated location, with an appointed person then transporting it to the play center's composting site to produce compost.

Subsequently, in 2000 the HUF accepted a commission from the Taipei City Government, conducting trials with kitchen waste recycling in two neighborhoods in the Taipei suburb of Neihu. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday was kitchen waste recycling day. The trial revealed that the public was more receptive than expected. Moreover, the amount of household garbage markedly decreased. Unfortunately, the upstream success did not enable the success of the recycling regime as a whole. The city government's planned construction of a composting site came to naught, and the arduously collected kitchen waste ended up being sent to landfills and incinerators.

Taipei County's Hsichih Environmental Protection Association has a kitchen waste recycling program that could be considered a more successful venture. Recycling began in 2001, and encompassed four large neighborhoods, as well schools, restaurants, and traditional markets along four collection routes-altogether around 30,000 targeted households and institutions. The approach was to set up kitchen waste barrels in the designated neighborhoods. The kitchen wastes were then collected twice a week and transported to composting sites that the association had built, and where natural fermentation was allowed to continue for six months to create kitchen waste compost. The final product was then supplied to organic farms where vegetables and fruits were grown, or to the farms at academic institutions for research purposes. A portion was returned to neighborhood residents.

Several other areas also followed the approach of working with farms, while some even went further, using organic farms and gardens for ecological education. Chin Chang-ting of Chi-an Rural Township in Hualien maintains an organic eco-garden that has dozens of types of fruit trees and insects for observation, making it a popular field trip destination for many natural science teachers and their students. Tanshui Primary School in Taipei County uses a composting bin to instruct students on how to recycle fallen leaves, teach them about how bugs and microbes decompose the leaves, and help them learn about the decay process that creates organic soil.

(below) This garden cultivated with kitchen waste compost is not only luxuriously verdant, but perhaps it can also serve to nurture an attitude of caring for the environment.

15% recycling rates

Although the government moved slowly in comparison with the vigorous private sector, it undertook steps in 2001, setting policies with villages, cities, and townships taken as units where kitchen waste recycling would be instituted. Over the past three years, more than 170 towns and villages have performed kitchen waste recycling work. Taichung City and Tainan City have also introduced comprehensive recycling programs. Currently, the country as a whole recycles an average of almost 15% of all kitchen waste. As for the disposition of collected kitchen waste, "70% is used primarily for raising pigs, and composting accounts for 30%," says Lin Tso-hsiang, section chief for kitchen waste recycling operations at the Environmental Protection Administration's Bureau of Environmental Inspection. During the current phase, local governments have not been required to institute kitchen waste recycling; they are merely encouraged to do so. Compulsory implementation has been hampered by incomplete supporting measures in the form of composting sites and distribution channels for the finished compost. Once these are ready, townships and villages will be required to fully institute recycling of kitchen waste.

The Bureau of Environmental Inspection is at present subsidizing experimental kitchen waste composting sites in six counties and cities. The compost produced will be used as a soil enhancer for parks and tree planting along roads.

Currently, there are many problems in building kitchen waste composting sites. The first is that locations are difficult to come by. Legal regulations require that composting sites use land zoned for industrial use, Taiwan's real estate prices are high, and the population is dense-not to mention the public's opposition to environmental measures that affect them adversely. All these factors make it difficult to find land on which to locate composting sites. The use category for land where current landfills are located does not allow them to be converted to composting sites. In order to resolve this dilemma, the EPA hopes in the future to direct its efforts toward changing use categories for remote farmlands. However, this will require negotiating with the COA to relax associated restrictions.

In recent years, many neighborhoods and schools are using this type of lidded, bottomless composting bin to recycle kitchen waste. The kitchen waste is mixed with fallen leaves, twigs, and dirt. Appropriate amounts of water are sprayed onto the mixture, and after three months the decay process is complete.

Compost management problematic

Another difficulty is that composting technologies are not yet mature. As kitchen waste derives from a diverse range of sources and varies widely in composition, this has been a continual concern of agricultural authorities. New composting technologies that can achieve consistent quality are desperately needed.

As for the COA's concerns that the oil and salt in kitchen waste may negatively impact the soil, Wu Sun-ho points out these concerns were sparked by the findings of research in Western countries. Taiwan's rainfall exceeds evaporation losses, so that most soils will not accumulate salinity. Moreover, local research has shown that not only does kitchen waste compost not affect soil composition, but that the vegetables raised in the soil are "the best organic vegetables in all of Taiwan!"

Numerous kitchen waste composting technologies have been appearing of late. Their creators vie for the spotlight, advocating solutions that vary in quality. How effective in fact are the various composts, and how should they be checked and graded? These matters demand the attention of agricultural authorities. However, Taiwan's Fertilizer Law does not contain provisions on kitchen waste compost. The compost produced by interested environmental companies such as Formosa Environmental Technology Corporation (FETC) can only be registered in the "miscellaneous compost" category. In order to respond to the ever-increasing volumes and types of compost being produced, environmental groups are calling for attention to be paid to the need for new laws.

(left) Canadian environmentalist Pierre Loisel collects food waste himself, working with National Taiwan University professor Wu Sun-ho to research kitchen waste composting, and uses a greenhouse to raise organic vegetables. "Organic vegetables planted in kitchen waste compost are healthy and look good," he says proudly.

Also an agricultural issue

Midstream composting technologies and quality are linked to the disposition of secondary materials downstream in the recycling regime.

At present, the EPA's Bureau of Environmental Inspection hopes to be able to work with private companies to find a solution for the problem of distributing compost. Therefore, the entry of FETC-with its ability to draw on the Formosa Plastics Group's business capabilities-into the compost business has aroused the hopes of environmental protection authorities. If cooperation with the private sector comes to naught, local governments will construct plants to produce compost, with park beautification projects being the focus. "After Taiwan joined the WTO, the Council of Agriculture has had a farmland reforestation program targeted at much idle or abandoned farmland. If kitchen waste compost can be utilized, it will be a win-win scenario," states the EPA's Chen Hsiung-wen.

"The only hope for kitchen waste composting is that it be combined with organic agriculture," believes Wu Sun-ho. It will be difficult to attain profits by focusing solely on composting. With the NT$10 asking price for one kilogram of approved compost, how can farmers afford it? His view is that compost should be produced by local governments and then provided to farmers for use at no charge or low cost. In this manner, not only can the poor-quality soil of Taiwan be improved, but the planting of organic fruits and vegetables can also be promoted. With trends pointing toward more organic agriculture in the future, the development prospects for this type of farming are unlimited.

It appears that for kitchen waste recycling to be run successfully not only will the ability of the citizenry to change lifestyle habits be challenged, but the determination of the government to implement policy will also be tested. Although the issue is complex, it is an important one that has implications for Taiwan's sustained development and survival. As such, it is deserves the concerted effort of the government and the private sector and full-fledged implementation.

On the eve of the commencement of Taipei's kitchen waste recycling program, Mayor Ma Ying-jeou did not shrink from getting close to food waste, personally providing instruction on how to sort the waste for recycling.

The use of kitchen waste to produce compost is an emerging trend. However, the technology and quality of the finished product is not as yet reliable enough. The photograph shows equipment such as a crusher and fermenter in use in Taipei County's Shuanghsi Township. The purpose of the equipment is to shorten the composting process, and their operation attracts many interested residents to tour the facility.