TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A newspaper in the Philippines has called on locals to learn from Taiwan in waste disposal, hailing the island as one of the countries boasting the highest recycling rates.

In an opinion piece published on May 7 titled “Let’s learn proper garbage disposal,” BusinessMirror lauded Taiwan for its effort to reduce the amount of waste. Citing official statistics, the article said Taiwan has over 1,600 companies capable of recycling 55 percent of trash from households and business entities, and 77 percent from industrial waste.

Not only is the endeavor conducive to environmental causes, recycling trash can also be profitable, with Taiwanese companies in the industry generating at least $2 billion in annual revenues, the editorial argued.

Non-profit organization Tzu Chi, for example, operates 5,400 recycling stations across Taiwan and is known for its charity deeds including donating blankets made from plastic bottles for relief work both in Taiwan and in countries such as the Philippines.

Around the 35,000 tons of garbage produced by Filipinos every day, only 70 percent are collected and only a small portion are recycled. The majority of the collected trash end up in landfills and dumps, the article cited Aldrin Plaza, an expert from the Asian Development Bank.

It is imperative that people of the Philippines exercise discipline and stop disposing of waste recklessly. Cleanliness is also an important indicator which weighs heavily with tourists and investors when they choose to visit or invest in a country, BusinessMirror reckoned.