If electroplating is my family's original sin, what has the government done?
Editor's note: Hemei in Changhua is a heavily contaminated area for heavy metal pollution, wastewater discharged by electroplating factories is the main source of pollution, and following the large-scale electroplating factory pollution in 2013, last month Hemei again tested rice with cadmium levels exceeding the standard, why does every electroplating factory directly discharge wastewater illegally? Why are there so many industrial zones in Changhua, yet centralized management is impossible? The author of this article is the son of a former electroplating factory owner, the family factory has already ceased operation, what does he see in the current state of the electroplating industry, and how does the government act? The following is the author's own account.
If doing electroplating is my family's original sin, what has the government done?
Text / Chen Jian-min (university student, son of a former electroplating factory owner)
My family used to run our own electroplating factory, starting around 88, and running until 92 when the losses were too severe and we transferred it out.
For the first half year of my father's factory, there was no license, but since I started high school I felt environmental protection was very important, so I argued with my family several times, and later my father handed the wastewater uniformly to an environmental protection company for removal, but costs rose in a straight line, at first it was still tolerable, because my father's skills were good and the finished products were good, so there were many customers, only we earned much less, but later after orders began to shift entirely to China, the losses became extremely severe, and later we chose to transfer it out.
After the transfer, the new owner continued to employ my father, but still barely managed to operate, and later even after the operating license expired it still continued operating, until two years ago, the new owner said it could not continue and wanted to sell it back to my father, but my father also had no money to buy it back, so he had to go discuss with the landlord, and the landlord paid to let my father take over the operation, so that my father would not lose his job, and the landlord would at least still have rent to collect, and he also began to reapply for the license (the application required a large sum of money, and a new environmental impact assessment, which is why the new owner was unwilling to apply).
But less than a month later, the Changhua electroplating factory wastewater incident occurred (2013), my father and the landlord were arrested at the same time, but they were the only one that had not discharged wastewater so they were released, however because there was no license they needed to pay a fine, and in the end could not pay it and decided to cease operation.
I first admit, every time I see a heavy metal pollution incident in Changhua, I feel very complicated, very sad, very angry, removal is possible, treatment is possible, in the end it is just like my family and collapses, if it were not for an unfilial son threatening my father with leaving home and going to die if he did not do the removal, how many could do it? None.
And the price our family paid is that, from comfortable to poor, the land left by my grandfather was later all lost to pay debts, my father did not dare return home for several years, carrying the label of a spendthrift, I admit, my family doing electroplating in my feeling is like original sin, but that was the only craft my father had in his whole life to support the family, from the so-called era of reckless construction and reckless discharge to now.
Why does every electroplating business directly discharge illegally?
Why do we now see every electroplating business not doing cleanup and directly discharging illegally? That is because those that did it are all dead. After the westward expansion policy, what did the government do back then to improve things? Was there any guidance for transformation? Was there any industrial policy? Nothing at all. Until now there still is none.
Two years ago orders began flowing back to Taiwan, which also means black factories would begin appearing again, but at the time they actually said no licenses would be issued (editor's note: after 2013, some areas of Hemei no longer accept new electroplating factory applications), the reason being that for environmental protection, no licenses would be issued. I really do not know who came up with this brain-dead policy of not issuing licenses, since it was known these factories would appear, then licenses should be issued and ways found to supervise them (such as centralized treatment and so on), but instead black factories appear everywhere, and only then do they say Changhua discharges everywhere, allow me to curse once, damn!
Speaking of testing, speaking of the irrigation associations, of course there are problems, but the bigger problem is, do they dare really arrest everyone? Under the current situation, arresting everyone is just forcing people to die, because no factory at all can bear the cost, it is better to discharge illegally and hide for as long as possible, but do they really not know they cannot discharge? They know very clearly, but not doing this means the whole family starves immediately, how many job opportunities does Changhua have? What is the average income?
Then last year they began encouraging factories to relocate to industrial zones, damn! The environmental impact assessment has not even passed and they are already rushing to move in, what the hell is this? And for the original factories, you cannot help me treat wastewater or reduce costs, and you still make employees travel far away increasing costs, why should I move over? Saying they will run dedicated buses, what use is that? Does commuting not take time? It only increases working hours and makes laborers more tired, and the water is still discharged illegally.
How exactly can electroplating factories be brought under supervision?
I think to discuss the matter of electroplating factory pollution, what must be discussed is how to bring electroplating factories under supervision, and the largest source in the waste liquid is unregistered factories, and after supervision how can they be made to do subsequent removal or dedicated drainage channels?
In my memory, the waste produced by electroplating can roughly be divided into waste soil and waste liquid, and this separation is usually done by settling tanks installed inside the factory, after settling it is handed to an environmental protection company for treatment, the waste liquid can be reprocessed through neutralization to reduce its polluting nature, the treatment of waste soil I am not clear about, but I remember it is harder to treat, and in what we often call pollution, it actually all comes from the waste liquid that is relatively easier to treat, the reason also being that it is easy to discharge, and after digging pipes for several kilometers winding around, it is very hard to catch.
Actually if one really wants to do it there are no new tricks, it is just whether it can be implemented? I think new factories or existing factories should be encouraged (through taxes or benefits) to concentrate in a certain industrial zone, it would be best to do wastewater treatment, waste soil removal and dedicated drainage channels well right from the start, but judging by the current government finances this is impossible,
so I think in the initial stage unified wastewater treatment and removal should be used, in the mid-term preliminary treatment plants should be built directly within the park, and in this process the dedicated drainage channels of the entire park should be gradually planned out (this also involves another matter, the sewer connection rate in Changhua, but let us not mention it for now), this whole process involves budgets and policy continuity, these will affect the time to complete or do it well (assisting with waste removal is itself a kind of benefit).
Let electroplating factories do well Increase profits and do wastewater remediation well
In addition, electroplating is divided into two types, one is rough plating and one is fine plating (actually they are not called these two, but what their names are I forgot, I only remember one is for plating gold and one is for plating other things like copper), Taiwan's factories currently mostly do rough plating, that is, the commonly mentioned red copper and bronze and the like, but there are many factories with very good technology that can do fine plating, and fine plating's pollution sources are also relatively fewer, but the problem lies first in different market demand, and second in fine plating equipment costs being very high, two to three times that of rough plating, while Taiwan's rough plating technology is very good even by world standards, yet it has always kept its prices low to compete.
Based on the above, what the government should do here is:
(1) Assist in establishing brands for local electroplating and even other small and medium-sized factories, Taiwan's factories can do this, raising sale prices and the added value produced, this can increase profits, so that the wastewater remediation and so on that the government invested in early on can gradually be maintained by the factories themselves, entering a virtuous cycle.
(2) Guide part of them toward fine plating, carry out transformation, expand the market and increase profits, which also helps the wastewater remediation of the entire industry. Rather than letting the current vicious competition run unchecked, and only then saying electroplating all discharges illegally, or attempting to rely on the conscience of business operators.
But what politicians on the stage are doing right now is all bullshit, short-sighted and looking only for quick gains, all they care about is votes, just like sheepdogs, herding the sheep everywhere, but after herding them they then eat their flesh and blood like wolves, as long as the surface looks good and the words sound nice, making small and medium-sized enterprises moved to tears, I pat my backside and leave in four or eight years for a better sky, this is the biggest problem.