Taipei Timesd
Date: Nov 06, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
Increased subsidies for underprivileged scavengers have stimulated the market of garbage recycling,
with the amount of recycled items growing threefold in three months, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.Many underprivileged people make a living by collecting and selling recyclable garbage, but some do not even earn enough a day to buy a cheap meal, EPA Recycling Fund Management Board executive secretary Yen Hsu-ming (顏旭明) told a news conference in Taipei.
Nearly 8,900 scavengers across the nation need urgent financial aid, board section chief Lien Yi-wei (連奕偉) said, adding that the figure only included those registered with the government.
To alleviate their predicament and boost recycling, the EPA in August launched a new subsidy program, raising the prices of 12 types of recyclable waste that local government-owned garbage squads pay to individual scavengers, Yen said. [FULL STORY]