Scrap metal imports criticized by environmental groups: waste once piled up at river mouths, and the waste can never be fully processed
This year is the International Year of Soils proclaimed by the United Nations, but in February Tainan Community University found that 15 tonnes of waste had been dumped illegally on farmland in Anding. Last year, half-century-old scrap metal was also found under the bridge at the mouth of the Erren River. Although this was reported eight months ago, it still has not been fully cleared, and the river has been left to wash it away. Only yesterday did the Sixth River Management Office urgently pack it into space bags, and today the government agencies will conduct a site inspection. Chao Jui-kuang, a researcher at Tainan Community University, criticised the government for being unable to control existing waste while in recent years also seeking to open up imports of scrap metal. In the end, it is the entire public that suffers.
Waste still not cleared after eight months, long since washed into the river
Have you ever wondered where broken mobile phones and computers end up? Taiwan has advanced refining technology, and many operators recycle scrap metal to extract valuable metals such as gold and copper. Half a century ago, Taiwan once imported large quantities of scrap metal unwanted by other countries and was the world's largest scrap metal dismantling centre. Many residents of Wanli in the Erren River area of Tainan made a living from it.
However, burning scrap metal also caused dioxin levels in the local air to be detected at as high as 0.2ppm, a concentration hundreds of millions of times that in the ambient air around garbage incinerators. The wastewater it discharged also flowed into the Erren River, polluting the sediment and water quality. Despite NT$4 to 5 billion being invested in remediation, it still cannot be cleaned up to this day, and exposed waste can be seen from time to time, washing and spreading with the river currents.
Tainan Community University, which has long monitored waste pollution, was visiting the Erren River in June last year when it unexpectedly discovered a large amount of scrap metal exposed at the river mouth. On closer inspection it turned out to be a product of half a century ago. "There was a very heavy keyboard inside, because it used stainless steel parts; now they are all plastic keyboards, which clearly shows this is something left over from a very long time ago," Chao Jui-kuang said.
After Tainan Community University reported the matter to the local government for handling, the waste still has not been completely cleared even now. Some of it is even left exposed, at the mercy of the river currents. Only yesterday did the Sixth River Management Office urgently pack the exposed scrap metal temporarily into space bags and briefly confirm the extent and depth, and today at ten o'clock various agencies will visit the site for an inspection.
