The next and smallest size five-litre bag, which costs NTS75 for 30 pieces, is too small for his daily trash.

To help alleviate the problem of unsuitable bag sizes, the city government is considering introducing more sizes of the garbage bag, which now comes in six sizes.

But it has no plans to reduce their prices, said Mr Chen, adding that these were already pegged at 30 per cent below the actual cost of garbage treatment.

For all the hiccups and complaints, indications are that the new garbage-collection scheme is fairly well supported by residents.

Figures for the first week were encouraging, with the daily volume of garbage collected down by 40 per cent to an average of 1,798 tonnes, while recyclable waste collected went up from last year’s 2.5 per cent of total volume to 10.2 per cent.

At the same time, the volume of waste dumped illegally was under 1 per cent.

Soon, the city will have to deal with the happy problem of over-capacity at its three incinerators.

One suggestion is that the oldest and most inefficient be decommissioned, but Mr Shen said the city was considering several alternatives, including selling capacity to neighbouring cities.

Another encouragement for the city government is that a poll conducted during the first week of implementation showed that about 70 per cent of Taipei residents favoured the scheme, with 23.7 per cent opposed to it.

But about 60 per cent of respondents thought the prices of bags unreasonable and 54 per cent said the plan caused inconvenience.

Mr Ma has expressed satisfaction with the outcome of  the scheme so far, but he was not about to pat himself on the back until the picture was clearer several months down the road.

But he has shown greater confidence in the success of the scheme since it was implemented.

As one commentator put it, Taipei’s trash could yet turn into gold for its Mayor.

-By Goh Sui Noi

Source : The Straits Times, Jul 28, 2000

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