A. Introduction

Due to the increase in consumer wealth and changes in eating habits, about 20-30% (in weight) of the household waste (garbage) in Taiwan is kitchen waste, which includes leftover meals, vegetable leaves, fruit peelings and scraped food. In the old Taiwanese agricultural society, it was customary to collect and reuse the kitchen waste and leftover food as pig feed. However, in a more developed city, the collection of kitchen waste as pig feed is a practice that may look bad and can provoke protests from the residents. Therefore, before 2001, most of the kitchen waste in Taiwan was treated by landfilling or incineration.

However, the incineration of kitchen waste is problematic due to its high moisture and salt contents; if treated by landfilling, the unpleasant odors and copious leachate generated by kitchen waste is another area of concern. On the other hand, the high organic contents of kitchen waste make it suitable for other recycling and reuse purposes, which can not only reduce the pressure on waste disposal system, but also conform to the 21st century's sustainable resource management trend. Thus the kitchen waste recycling and reuse program has become a major component of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) waste reduction and treatment option diversification policy over the years

B. Current Status

Since the fiscal year 2001, the EPA has been subsidizing the local town, county and city governments to establish their kitchen waste collection and recycling programs, in order to expand kitchen waste recycling efforts throughout the nation.. At present, all local governments nationwide are implementing the kitchen waste recycling program.

In 2015, over 600,000 tonnes of kitchen waste were recycled in Taiwan. The amounts of kitchen waste recycled for previous years are listed in the Table belo

In 2015, over 600,000 tonnes of kitchen waste were recycled in Taiwan.

Fiscal Year	Daily kitchen waste recycled (tonne/day)	Annual kitchen waste recycled (tonne/year)
2003	458	167,304
2004	818	299,264
2005	1,270	463,401
2006	1,561	569,862
2007	1,816	662,849
2008	1,889	691,271
2009	1,977	721,472
2010	2,107	769,164
2011	2,222	811,199
2012	2,280	834,541
2013	2,197	795,213
2014	1,974	720,313
2015	1,670	609,706

C. Expected Benefits 

Kitchen waste takes up about 20-30% of the weight of household garbage. If it can be sorted, collected and reused, the expected life of existing landfills may be lengthened, the efficiency of garbage incinerators improved, and the following additional benefits may be achieved:

1.Reduce the decay of household garbage and breeding of pests, thus improving sanitary conditions

2.Reduce the amount of waste and burden to waste treatment system, resulted in reduction in public nuisance prevention costs to incinerators and landfills

3.Reduce residents' garbage collection fees in cities and towns implementing the fee-per-bag garbage collection scheme.

4.May provide pig farmers with low cost feedstuff; when converted to organic fertilizer, it may improve the soil fertility; may increase farmland productivity and result in greening of land

5.May cultivate residents' good habits in conserving resources, and create a society with sustainable resource utilization habits

D. Future Prospect

Through the combined efforts of EPA and local governments, 1600 tonnes of kitchen waste in Taiwan is recycled every day, which reduces the need to build two garbage incinerators; and in addition, produces 2 billion New Taiwan dollars every year in economic benefits due to the recycling and reuse of such kitchen waste.

No matter how kitchen waste is being reused, it is capable of producing high economic value. In the future, the EPA will cooperate with the local governments to further improve the existing kitchen waste recycling program, in order that residents can work with the governments in sorting and collecting kitchen waste, and achieve the complete collecting, recycling and reuse of all kitchen waste generated, and turn it into a useful resource.

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