The EPA has been working to build diverse food waste processing channels. In addition to permitting 694 pig farms to use food waste as pig feed, it has provided over NT$130 billion in subsidies to local governments to install food waste shredding, drying, and high-efficiency composting facilities; establish food waste bioenergy plants; enhance the efficiency of established composting facilities; and purchase collection and transport vehicles. These measures were aimed at making food waste processing more diverse and more effective.

The EPA pointed out that to satisfy the needs and development of the pig farming industry, it had approved 694 pig farms to use food waste as pig feed, allowing the traditional practice of using food scraps to feed pigs to continue. However, to prevent the spread of African swine flu via food waste, the EPA is still making every effort to supervise and urge pig farms to implement high-temperature cooking of food waste. According to the EPA’s statistics, 9,279 pig farms have been inspected since 1 Feb 2019, when environmental authorities across the country started vigorous inspections of pig farms to ensure the safety of using food waste as pig feed.      

In addition, after a recent floating dead pig incident in New Taipei City, environmental authorities across the country immediately began to carry out the instructions that the Central Emergency Operation Center ordered in response to the risk of African swine flu, and restarted inspections of the 694 pig farms permitted to use food waste, so as to reduce the risk of disease spreading through food waste.

The EPA reminded restaurants and enterprises to hand their food waste over to cleaning squads or legal pig farms to be made into pigswill or compost. They are not to hand food waste over to illegal pig farms or discard it randomly. Violators will be punished severely in accordance with the Waste Disposal Act.     

Excerpt from Major Environmental Policies, May 2021

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