TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hsinchu City Government said renovation work and capacity expansion are nearly complete at the 23-year-old Hsinchu Refuse Resource Recovery Plant.
The plant had been operating with old, outdated equipment that frequently broke down, leading to a shutdown of the facility in November. As the only large-scale waste treatment facility in Hsinchu City, improving the reliability of the plant and capacity was deemed a priority.
Hsinchu Bureau of Environmental Protection Director Jiang Shengren (江盛任) said that sections of the plant were shut down for repairs beginning in November. These areas included weighing scales, garbage cranes, air condensing fans, distributed control systems, and furnace pipes, per UDN.
Jiang said four months of repair and construction work were needed to complete the plant upgrade and capacity expansion. The majority of work was completed at the end of January, allowing the furnace to be ignited.
Jiang said that during renovation the relevant units implemented stricter control of industrial waste entering the factory to ensure sufficient storage pit space and waste transfer volume. He added most of the equipment at the plant has been ungraded and operations are underway.
However, follow-up work is still being carried out to enable capacity expansion as the plant plans to process 680 metric tons of garbage per day. Even so, upgrading the incineration plant will not solve Hsinchu’s waste problem, and Jiang called upon members of the public to step up efforts to reduce and recycle, as source reduction of garbage is the best way to achieve a low-carbon, net-zero green lifestyle.
