Environmental protection and human rights has
been an ongoing debate for quite some time and I believe they both go hand in
hand. In Taiwan rights like the right to live are violated daily with the
impact of waste from big industrial companies. Environmental groups throughout
the country are calling out the Environmental Protection Agency and their handling
of their garbage incineration policy which has been shown to prioritize
industrial waste over household waste. Taiwan Watch Institute secretary-general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) said EPA policy benefits
incineration plant operators by allowing them to accept industrial waste,
adding that operators can charge more for the processing of industrial waste.
The
EPA has constructed 26 incineration plants under its “one incineration plant
for each municipality” policy, but one plant in Taitung County and another in
Yunlin County have yet to start operation.
The
problem here is an economic one as incineration plants make more money dealing
with industrial waste over household. Incineration
plants can earn more than NT$1,000 for every ton of household garbage from
other municipalities that they process, while they can earn between NT$1,500
and more than NT$2,000 for processing 1 ton of industrial waste, making
industrial waste more attractive, Hsieh said. There are three
privately managed plants, five public plants and 16 other facilities
constructed by the EPA that have been transferred to local governments and run
by private companies.
“The
21 government-funded plants should prioritize household garbage over industrial
waste, instead of benefiting plant operators at the taxpayers’ expense,” he
said. With the waste industry basically being capitalized it may become a
bidding war on who takes out the trash and who can afford to have trash. With
Taiwan charging people per trash bag to incinerate a nationwide liter problem
may be in the foreseeable future.
To sum
up what Farish Noor said in Beyond Eurocentrism, the
western world must begin to accept and co-exist with other countries and their
cultural values and beliefs. Ethnocentrism which is defined by Noor is the tendency of
individuals and cultures to view themselves as well as the environment around
them from the perspective of their own culture, values and beliefs. Over
time countries have found ways to reject to ideals and beliefs of the western
world and have created movements of their own a recent example of this would be
the rise of ISIS. These countries have felt ignored and are tired of the
superiority complex the western world has. In the future it is our job as
Americans and citizens of this world to be more accepting and understanding of
everyone’s culture around us. How can someone understand what a certain group or
demographic is going through when they have never had a conversation or got to
know them on a personal level.
Article
contents courtesy of Taipei Times
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