Comprehensive Inventory of Kitchen Waste Production and Disposal Capacity in Yunlin and Pingtung, and Epidemic-Prevention Kitchen Waste Processing

By Liu Yixin and Lin Peijun, reporters for Upstream and Downstream

If African swine fever broke out tomorrow, kitchen waste would immediately become a battlefield. Is every place ready? Upstream and Downstream contacted local environmental protection bureaus and departments to obtain frontline information. This article takes stock of Yunlin County, which has already banned kitchen waste, and Pingtung, a major pig-farming county. To read the inventory for the six special municipalities, please click here. (Other counties and cities are being inventoried one after another and will continue to be published.)

(Background note: The following kitchen waste recycling figures are official statistics, but many kitchen waste pig farmers say that the official statistics on kitchen waste are not precise, because during the recycling process kitchen waste has long existed in a situation of "reporting more while collecting less." Private operators drive small trucks with kitchen waste barrels on them and collect it here and there in this way, mostly from households, snack shops and night markets, and it is not necessarily included in the statistics. Readers are asked to take this into account.)

1. Yunlin: 67 tons of cooked kitchen waste produced daily, made into meat-and-bone meal and then mixed with compost

To prevent and block African swine fever, Yunlin, which mainly raises white pigs, banned kitchen waste pig feeding in one stroke by order of the county government, but kitchen waste disposal became the primary difficulty. Zhang Qiaowei, director of the Yunlin County Government Environmental Protection Bureau, pointed out that Yunlin County's daily raw kitchen waste volume is about 21 metric tons. For the cooked kitchen waste portion, households produce about 27 metric tons per day, and business cooked kitchen waste, including restaurants and schools, is roughly estimated at 40 metric tons, but if drained of water, it is about 20 metric tons.

At present, raw kitchen waste is sent to composting sites for processing, while cooked kitchen waste is sent to rendering plants to be made into meat-and-bone meal, then mixed with raw kitchen waste for composting. Through three rendering plants in the county, the estimated processing capacity per day can reach more than 100 metric tons. Zhang further explained that Yunlin's cooked kitchen waste is sent to rendering plants, and after being crushed, it is steamed and cooked at a high temperature of 150°C, dehydrated and drained, and continuously stir-fried and mixed until it becomes meat-and-bone meal. Because it contains high protein, when mixed with raw kitchen waste it can become a high-quality fertilizer.

Zhang Qiaowei said that after banning kitchen waste pig feeding in one stroke, the main difficulties encountered were insufficient manpower and insufficient machinery, which require central assistance, as well as the problem of kitchen waste having too high a water content, and they have already sought water-draining equipment from the central government. Since banning kitchen waste pig feeding, the Yunlin County Government has allocated a budget of 30 to 40 million, used for dehydration equipment, transport vehicles, labor, and so on. He stressed that they cannot wait until all equipment is in place and the central government allocates a budget before acting. "We can only adjust while doing it. No matter how much money the county government spends, we should fully ban kitchen waste pig feeding. This affects a pork industry worth 200 billion."

Direct composting of cooked kitchen waste: county processing capacity insufficient

Zhang Qiaowei said that restaurant kitchen waste in other counties and cities is all used for pig feeding, but the Yunlin County Government fully bans kitchen waste pig feeding. All restaurant and snack shop kitchen waste is transported by cleaning teams from various places in Yunlin County to rendering plants for processing, while a small number of larger restaurants and factories send it directly to rendering plants. Asked whether the manpower of cleaning teams in various places is sufficient, he responded that it is still being assessed and redeployed.

After banning kitchen waste pig feeding, restaurant operators must apply to the cleaning teams, and the cleaning teams transport the kitchen waste, calculated at a fee of 150 yuan per 60 kg barrel. In response to the fact that catering operators could originally sell kitchen waste but now must additionally spend money to transport it, Zhang explained that not every catering operator was selling kitchen waste to pig farmers; some paid pig farmers to come collect the kitchen waste. But the number of snack shops is huge. Is there really a way to grasp them all? Zhang responded that through the county government's public health system data, all catering operators have already been grasped. The township offices already had lists long ago, and currently more than 3,900 have been identified, even including traditional market vendors.

Using cooked kitchen waste directly as compost is also feasible, but Yunlin County's composting capacity is not enough to cope. Zhang Qiaowei pointed out that one composting site cooperating with the Yunlin County Government currently has a daily processing capacity of 30 metric tons, mainly handling raw kitchen waste. Making compost requires relevant equipment, fertilizer registration certificates and other related testing, and must achieve high-temperature sterilization at 130°C. There are nine private composting sites in Yunlin, currently mostly taking in poultry and livestock manure, fruit and vegetable residues, and so on. "But Yunlin does not rule out any resource, and will continue to conduct assessments."

For school kitchen waste, it is also uniformly collected and transported by cleaning teams. Zhang estimated that the amount of kitchen waste from schools in Yunlin County is about six metric tons per day. In addition to promoting reduced food waste and reducing kitchen waste at the source, they are also successively inventorying the characteristics of each school and promoting school self-composting plans as appropriate. Yunlin schools have large areas, and many lawns and flower beds can actually be used to make compost. As for the odor problem, Zhang explained that if the generated kitchen waste is covered with soil on the same day, there will not be an odor, and no additional equipment is needed for processing.

Township and town cleaning teams lack both manpower and equipment, and ask the county government to increase resources

Because Yunlin County fully bans kitchen waste pig feeding, the heavy responsibility of kitchen waste recycling falls on the cleaning teams of each township and town. The Huwei Cleaning Team said that schools and catering operators in various places will apply to the cleaning team for kitchen waste transport, and then the cleaning team will go collect it. At present, it has not yet estimated how much kitchen waste volume will increase. As for manpower deployment, it depends on scheduling by the county government's Environmental Protection Bureau. "At present, the cleaning team lacks both manpower and equipment and is not really able to handle these kitchen waste volumes. We have already reported this to the Environmental Protection Bureau."

Huang Yidong, captain of the Douliu Cleaning Team, said that Douliu currently has about six tons of raw kitchen waste per day and about six to seven tons of cooked kitchen waste. After kitchen waste is banned from pig feeding, 400 operators originally outsourcing to pig farmers, as well as 200 catering operators belonging to business entities, need to register with the cleaning team. It is estimated that cooked kitchen waste recycling will increase to about 15 tons, requiring an additional four collection vehicles. Each vehicle requires three personnel, so it is estimated that 12 additional staff will be needed.

Huang Yidong also said that he currently knows of plans to purchase kitchen waste dehydrators locally. If estimated based on Douliu's current volume of six tons per day, dehydration processing alone would require a full day. He admitted frankly, "There is simply no time for this kind of operation." Therefore, in addition to adding 12 personnel for collection and transport, further processing would require another six, for an estimated total of 18 to 20 personnel.

2. Pingtung: 48 tons of kitchen waste produced daily; in the past it was not even enough for pigs in the county, and the kitchen waste ban has had a major impact

According to statistics from the Pingtung County Environmental Protection Bureau, Pingtung County produces about 48 tons of kitchen waste per day, including 38 tons of kitchen waste recycled by garbage trucks, schools, military camps and township offices themselves (belonging to "general waste"), and 10 tons of kitchen waste generated by markets and restaurants (belonging to "business waste"). In the past, 90 percent relied on pig farms to consume it, and only a small portion was used for composting.

Yu Dongbi, section chief of waste management at the Pingtung County Environmental Protection Bureau, explained that Pingtung is located in the countryside, and residents generally do not have the concept and practice of separating raw and cooked kitchen waste, so it is usually recycled and processed mixed together. Only fruit and vegetable residues generated by fruit and vegetable markets are specifically sent to composting sites for composting.

What is particularly notable is that Pingtung's kitchen waste pig farms have a large demand for kitchen waste. The 53 pig farms in the jurisdiction that have passed the "reuse review" have a total monthly kitchen waste demand of 2,043 tons, of which only more than 300 tons come from kitchen waste generated within the jurisdiction, while the rest is all collected from restaurants, schools and township offices in other counties and cities (about 1,700 tons per month). This is equivalent to these 53 "reuse review" pig farms receiving 58 tons of out-of-county kitchen waste per day (mainly from Kaohsiung, accounting for 80 percent, with the rest from Tainan). It can thus be seen that Pingtung has long consumed a large amount of out-of-county kitchen waste, with the total even exceeding the amount of kitchen waste produced within its own jurisdiction (48 tons per day).

Yu Dongbi said that influenced by the nationwide wave of "kitchen waste bans," the kitchen waste recycling tenders in the Nanzhou and Wandan areas of Pingtung have failed to attract bids multiple times since the beginning of this year. They are currently actively looking for manufacturers willing to take over, to avoid kitchen waste having nowhere to go and incidents of random dumping.

If it does not help other counties and cities consume it, handling kitchen waste within the county is more than enough

On the disposal of kitchen waste, Yu Dongbi said that as long as pig farms in the jurisdiction no longer receive kitchen waste from other counties and cities, fully consuming the county's own kitchen waste would actually be "more than enough," because in the past the out-of-county kitchen waste received by "reuse review" pig farms in the jurisdiction alone was nearly 58 tons per day, exceeding Pingtung County's own daily kitchen waste production (48 tons), showing that pig farms still have spare capacity to handle kitchen waste within the county. "We have already issued documents to guide each livestock farm, requiring them, under consideration of the risk of virus transmission, not to buy kitchen waste from other counties and cities anymore, to avoid virus transmission and at the same time not increase our own kitchen waste processing burden." "We require them not to help other counties and cities consume kitchen waste anymore, and just absorb our own."

The Pingtung County Government invited operators generating business waste kitchen waste and various kitchen waste pig farms on the 11th to hold an explanatory meeting to discuss relevant response measures to the "kitchen waste ban," as well as to inventory the county's collection and transport capacity and kitchen waste disposal channels.

Bury first, then incinerate

At present, Pingtung County has five public composting sites, which are small-scale and can process one to three tons of kitchen waste per day. There are also eight private composting sites, with monthly processing volumes ranging from several hundred to several thousand tons, responsible for processing raw kitchen waste, such as plant-based residues, which can be used as organic fertilizer. As for one incineration plant, it is located in Kanding and can process up to 900 tons of garbage per day, but its normal operating processing volume is 750 tons per day. Calculated under the environmental regulation "the mixing ratio of kitchen waste and garbage for co-incineration is limited to 5 percent," this equals about 40 tons of kitchen waste that can be consumed per day.

If a nationwide kitchen waste ban is launched temporarily, the priority for Pingtung's kitchen waste will be to send it to the Fangliao landfill for burial, and if that still does not work, then to the Kanding incinerator for incineration.

Yu Dongbi explained that the current five public composting sites have limited capacity and can only handle kitchen waste within their own county, while private composting sites mainly handle raw kitchen waste (fruit peel type) and cannot urgently cope with large amounts of cooked kitchen waste, so they are not the primary choice for current kitchen waste disposal. As for the Fangliao landfill, it could originally handle 100 tons of garbage per day. In the future, kitchen waste will be required to undergo dehydration before transport, and with guidance to no longer consume kitchen waste from other counties and cities, this is equivalent to the 48 tons of kitchen waste in the jurisdiction being reduced to only 16 tons after dehydration and volume reduction, so capacity is very sufficient.

Yu pointed out that the county government has also purchased large-scale dehydration facilities, and will further guide households and restaurants to drain kitchen waste themselves first when recycling it, which will also make subsequent sending to incinerators for processing relatively more convenient.

Rendering plants given priority for emergency uses, encourage circular use

Can rendering plants be activated to handle kitchen waste as in other counties and cities? In response, Yu Dongbi said that Pingtung has four rendering plants (private) and is a major center of rendering plants in the country. At present, they are first scheduled and planned for emergency handling of poultry and livestock carcasses in future outbreaks. "If they are to support kitchen waste, of course that is also possible, but at present they are first reserved for emergency uses."

As for the long-term planning for kitchen waste disposal, Yu Dongbi also said that in addition to following central recommendations and guiding large kitchen waste producers to install their own kitchen waste processing equipment, they will also plan to set up a regional processing center near the Fangliao landfill to increase kitchen waste burial capacity. In addition, they will encourage large livestock farms already engaged in circular green energy, such as the Donghaifeng Livestock Farm, to switch to processing kitchen waste. "They originally focused on handling poultry and livestock manure and are equipped with anaerobic fermentation facilities. In fact, kitchen waste can have multiple uses, depending on whether it is used for power generation or made into organic fertilizer. This is to encourage operators to research and develop reuse technology and let kitchen waste be used circularly."

Special articles:

1. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 01"Direct look at kitchen waste pig farming. Pig farmers: This is our life and property. We are more afraid of being hit than anyone else!
2. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 02"Civil war among pig farmers: Kitchen waste pig feeding is high-risk and outdated VS kitchen waste can be more finely sorted apart from high-temperature steaming
3. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 03"Expert opinion: If you want to use kitchen waste, you must do it to 100 percent, otherwise leave the industry! Sorting kitchen waste into with meat and without meat reduces risk
4. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 04"The kitchen waste ban is a rush job. The Environmental Protection Administration is stamping its feet: "Swine fever has not even come in yet, and the country is already in chaos."
5. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 05"Opportunities and challenges of composting! Local kitchen waste can be composted in a decentralized way, even Daan Forest Park can do it
6. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 06"Taiwan-wide Comprehensive Inventory of Kitchen Waste Production and Disposal Capacity (Six Special Municipalities)
7. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 07"Taiwan-wide Comprehensive Inventory of Kitchen Waste Production and Disposal Capacity (Yunlin and Pingtung)
8. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 08"Pingtung has something to say: The kitchen waste ban impacts the black pig industry chain, and non-kitchen-waste feed also needs attention
9. The Battle of Epidemic Prevention and Kitchen Waste 09"Kitchen waste-to-power is powerful. With 250 metric tons of kitchen waste input daily, it is estimated to produce enough electricity for 60,000 households annually