Abstract
Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has enacted a food waste recycling policy since 2003 as an alternative of landfill and incineration for the final disposal of municipal solid waste. Recycled food waste is currently seen as a valuable material, especially when appropriate technology is developed. This paper conducts a cost/benefit analysis based on six cases of food waste composting plants in Taiwan, finding that (1) the composting of food waste may yield the most net benefit compared to other applications of today; (2) the production cost of compost ranges from NT$ 2897–23,117/tonne; (3) the adoption of more automatic technology may reduce operation costs and, thus, a closed composting system with mechanical aeration may be more cost effective; (4) the output is a determinant of affecting production costs and private firms are more competitive in production costs than government-affiliated composting units; (5) all of the government-affiliated composting units face a negative profit and thus they are required to make use of the market value of the produced compost to achieve economic viability; and (6) a subsidy to the compost producer is needed to expand the market demand as the food waste recycled can save the disposal cost of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration.
Highlights
In 2014, Taiwan’s municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal by incineration and landfills amounted to 3,189,000 tonnes and 83,000 tonnes, accounting for 43.27% and 1.14% of MSW generated, respectively, and the rest (55.59%) is recycled [1]
Many researchers argue that MSW treatments by means of recycling, recovery, and reuse should be adopted as a priority in MSW management [2,3,4,5,6]
The recycling of food waste by compost is beneficial to agricultural land and yields fewer environmental impacts compared to other disposal processes, like landfilling and incineration [13,14]
Summary
In 2014, Taiwan’s municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal by incineration and landfills amounted to 3,189,000 tonnes and 83,000 tonnes, accounting for 43.27% and 1.14% of MSW generated, respectively, and the rest (55.59%) is recycled [1]. Many researchers argue that MSW treatments by means of recycling, recovery, and reuse should be adopted as a priority in MSW management [2,3,4,5,6]. Among these treatments, biological composting is generally considered to be a rapid and simple process to stabilize and reduce the waste mass. Lim et al [11] present an overview on the feasibility of composting from the organic waste and the environmental impact and economic potential of composting They suggest that composting can be seen as a sustainable means for MSW management. The recycling of food waste by compost is beneficial to agricultural land and yields fewer environmental impacts compared to other disposal processes, like landfilling and incineration [13,14]
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