ORIGINAL RESEARCH
An Analysis of Recycling Performance
for Achieving a Zero-Emission Society
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Department of Health Care Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan
Submission date: 2017-07-29
Final revision date: 2017-11-05
Acceptance date: 2017-11-21
Online publication date: 2018-06-25
Publication date: 2018-07-09
Corresponding author
Yi-Tui Chen
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, 89, Nei-Chiang St. Wan-Hua Dist., 108 Taipei, Taiwan
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2018;27(6):2475-2481
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ABSTRACT
Considering the management objectives of sustainable development, this paper examines and compares
the recycling performance of various waste fractions in Taiwan in the context of sustainable development
and develops a simple calculation method to define recycling performance for each waste fraction. In this
paper, recycling performance is defined as the ratio of waste recycled to waste generated. The result finds
that the recycling performance of waste metals was the highest, followed by waste glass and waste paper.
This paper also finds that the recycling performance of food waste increased with the mass of food waste
until it reached an optimum and dropped off with additional increases in mass of food waste past in the
optimum. In consideration of a large amount of food wastes generated from productive institutions such
as wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants, etc., this paper suggests 2 instruments to reduce the generation
rate of food waste and increase recycling performance at the source: 1) a tax on food waste generated in
the production process and 2) requiring production facilities to install affiliated digestion or composting
plants for recycling of food waste. As for reducing consumptive food waste, this paper emphasizes the
important role of environmental education for the public to engage in green consumption.