Visiting the Prince of Trash Bags
After we read the article, written by Miss Julia Ross, on Washington Post, the question we wanted to ask was, “How could Taipei City Government treat the trash?」
What had the citizens done?” It was said that Mr. Chen Shi Hong, Minister of Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R. O. C. (Taiwan) was “the Prince of Trash Bags”. Nine years ago, Mr. Chen was the commissioner of Department of Environmental Protection, Taipei City Government (TDEP). During that term of office, he tried to carry out the policy of “A Charge of Trash Bags” in Taipei and made it rather successful.
Mr. Chen was a gentle man. He received us friendly. The place we were meeting was the gorgeous garden on the roof of his office building. It was, somewhat, like a party but not like the official interview.
When Minister Chen showed up, all of us kept in silence. The atmosphere was a little embarrassed. Luckily, Minister Chen himself was humor and kind. He called himself with smile as “the Prince of Trash Bags”. He said it was rather difficult to carry out the policy of “A Charge of Trash Bags”. But now it was proved that the policy was very successful because the quantity of the garbage was decreased over 1,500 tons one day after putting the policy into practice. It decreased half of the quantity of garbage in Taipei. Moreover, after carrying out the policy of “To Recycle Kitchen Waste”, there were almost 140 tons of kitchen waste would be recycled one day. Today, the quantity of garbage in Taipei was reduced to 40%. This great achievement was glaring. The Environmental Association of Singapore recommended Taipei as the best government which had well done the environmental protection in Asia area in 2001.