TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tainan said Wednesday it has turned old oyster racks once treated as marine waste into reusable biomass fuel with high economic and environmental value.

According to the Tainan City Government, the racks used to be treated as marine trash, but officials have now found a way to reuse them. Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said the city teamed up with the Longci District Farmers’ Association to turn the racks into biomass fuel.

Huang noted that the government first worked with the association to make bamboo charcoal products such as deodorizing bags and soil conditioners. It then pushed the work further by developing wood-gas power technology that uses the racks as fuel, demonstrating a full circular-economy model.

Longci Farmers’ Association Promotion Department Director Tung Chi-sheng (董啟聖) said the project upgraded production from old earth kilns to modern gasification furnaces. Tung noted that the new system can now process 1 tonne of waste a day, up from about 3 tonnes a month.

The city’s Agriculture Bureau Commissioner Li Fang-lin (李芳林) said the city will keep tightening waste collection at the source and expand reuse programs. Li said the goal is to turn coastal waste into something useful, clean up the shoreline, and build a bigger circular-economy system for the city.