TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Tainan announced Tuesday that a new incinerator plant will begin burning an additional 100,000 tonnes of waste per year by 2027.
The city's environmental protection bureau said the region produces 1.25 million tonnes of trash each year, with 770,000 tonnes recycled or repurposed as compost, per a city government press release. The bureau added there are 915,000 tonnes of stored rubbish.
Tainan City Chengxi Incineration Plant in Annan District will open in 2027 and is expected to burn 100,000 tonnes a year.
Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) was quoted as saying that Tainan had previously experienced waste crises. He cited 2025's Danas typhoon, which exposed 32,000 tonnes of asbestos roofing that needed to be cleared.
The city said it has secured NT$1.37 billion (US$42.88 million) in funding from the central government since 2023 to clear over 25,000 tonnes of asbestos.
On recycling, the city said it recycles 720,000 tonnes of trash. It is requesting further central government and private funding to build more recycling sites equipped with artificial intelligence sorting machines.
The city has promoted other measures reduce waste such as banning single-use items. It said it has opened 1,000 collection sites across the region, expecting to cut out 1 million single-use items per year.
The city also said that since the ban on using kitchen waste as pig feed took effect, it has been updating processing facilities to ferment it into biogas for power generation. The city aims to treat up to 160 tonnes of food waste by 2028.
The bureau said it will continue these measures to reach the city's zero waste 2050 goal.
