Takeaways from Taiwan & the Lecture Discussion by Dr Alagu Perumal

I was privileged to participate and moderate the Lecture Discussion on 'Plastic Waste Management in Taiwan' by Dr. Alagu Perumal, professor at LIBA (Loyola Institute of Business Administration) at the Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S) on July 25, 2019. The talk was based on the professor's recent visit to Taiwan and the research on the waste management sector he has been conducting. 

The information shed light on many aspects of waste management, plastic recycling and culture.

Despite researching and sharing plastic waste management for over a year now, I hadn't heard about Taiwan's best practices and success stories in this field. There is much to learn from the Republic of China (ROC).

• The takeaways are from the actions and policy of the Taiwanese government, the NGO Tzu Chi and recycling entrepreneurs. 
• Behind Germany & Switzerland, Taiwan's waste management program is the third most efficient in the world. 

The disclaimer that perhaps prevents Taiwan's waste management model from being the ideal is the fact that the island nation still incinerates a major portion of its waste. Yet, considering the evolution of sector given the labor costs and shortages as well as the space constraints, Taiwan's waste management models have many innovative strategies to offer the world at large. 

This article gives a good overview of governmental policies and initiatives to clean up the island and promote recycling by its citizens. 

Considering the plastic legacy we leave behind for future generations in enduring mounds of plastic covered mountains of wastes and fossilized plastics, the need of the hour is to scale up successful models of plastic recycling and solid waste management. 

Plastics pollute air, water and soil. Solving the crisis is an urgent requirement. This national culture that promotes recycling and responsibly disposes of waste while minimizing waste needs to be studied and promoted. 

In this, Dr Alagu Perumal's research will yield some much needed insights into this culture of waste management and recycling: 

In Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, unrecyclable trash can be disposed only in a specific blue bag provided by the government that costs a significant amount. Trash that can be recycled however can be disposed without those garbage bags. Thus, in a simple economic step, the government raises funds for its waste management program while encouraging people to maximize their recycling. 

Unrecyclable trash is incinerated and the ash is used as construction material 

Some provinces are allow incinerators to function while others protest them and pay other provinces to burn their solid waste as well as pay for it to be transported there. 

A truly circular economy is key to solving this plastic and waste crises. Value creation while simultaneously reducing consumption can help tackle the global waste problem. Recycling entrepreneurs in Taiwan have tapped into this culture of recycling and turned great profits. There are startups in Taiwan that are capable of extracting 99% pure gold from e-waste. 

NGO Tzu Chi & Da Ai Technologies

• Tzu Chi is a Buddhist NGO founded by Dharma Master Cheng Yen runs on the principles of Humanistic Buddhism. 
• Tzu Chi's recycling initiative comprises over 6000 recycling points & over 350 recycling stations across Taiwan.
• It has over 10 million volunteers worldwide.
• Tzu Chi is one of the few NGOs allowed to respond to disasters on the mainland. 
  Even amid the ongoing Hong Kong vs. Communist Party hostilities, Tzu Chi and Da Ai in Taiwan received delegations from both Hong Kong and PRC. 
• Sorting plastic waste has become a sort of meditative therapy for senior citizens - meditative repetitive actions.
• Money generated from the Tzu Chi recycling centers fund a third of the operating budget of Da Ai Technology. 
• Tzu Chi are expert at responding to natural disasters and are disaster relief work experts.
•  They recycle a lot of the plastic to make Compassion Goods, equipment for disaster relief workers and giveaways such as tents, blankets etc. 
• 2020 is the 30th anniversary of Tzu Chi's plastic recycling. 
• Where governments fail entrepreneurs can find solution as they create value. 

To commemorate the 30th anniversary Dr Alagu Perumal is collating stories of volunteers who have served for decades in the Tzu Chi recycling centers for a book project. He shared some moving personal stories from the recycling volunteers from his first trip to the recycling center: 

• One senior citizen volunteer had shared that the work done to ensure recycling and reduce waste is a concrete action of love for their grandchildren. Leaving behind a cleaner country a strong demonstration of love for the next generation and less interfering and smothering than hovering over grand-kids which is usually resented by young people. 
• A father-son duo have been volunteering at a Tzu Chi recycling sorting center for decades began volunteering after the loss of the mother. The son is in his late 60s and the father is in his late 90s. Since volunteering at the center the father has managed to kick his smoking habit and the almost meditative action of sorting the plastics have helped the nonagenarian deal with depression following the loss of his wife and curbing his dependence on cigarettes. 

A lot of innovation, product design & redesign and testing is constantly done to create newer and better products at Da Ai Technologies. Products include plastic bricks, wood-waste plastic mix durable and strong building material, durable plastic bricks/plastic building blocks/sheets made from waste plastic and discarded garments. 

• Anything that doesn't occupy space in a landfill is a big win. 
• And if these upcycled products substitute for rapidly depleting natural resources so much the better: e.g., sand and concrete substitutes in construction. 

Da Ai has truly mastered not just recycling and upcycling but even upcycling recycled goods to create new products (Recycle 2 Recycle, e.g., PET bottles are made into blankets supplied to survivors of disasters and used old blankets are made into stylish sun glasses!). 

While Da Ai Tech products are expensive, they are pitched to a well-off network of members.

They are focused on creating an environment of love. Their products are a physical manifestation of Great Love (the translation of Da Ai while Tzu Chi the parent entity's name translates to Kindness and Mercy).

  

Some Key Takeaways & Conclusions

• Mass production of such upcycled products can help tackle the plastic waste build up.
• Pyrolysis waste to fuel technology can be a game-changer: 

The mountains of plastic should be looked at as a reservoir of fuel - it beats digging up and transporting fossil fuels as long as the global economy is still fueled by fossil fuels. Government policy as well as thorough regulation and monitoring of flammables produced through plastic to fuel technology and plants should be encouraged. With the amount of technology available apps can be designed to monitor these unconventional fuel producers. 

Our relationship with the waste must be re-examined. 

• We must cut consumption and where we can curb further single-use plastic production
• A culture that promotes dignity of labor and value creation needs to encouraged and inculcated through our education system.