Strategy study of in-family municipal solid waste sorting in Taiwan, ROC

In-family sorting of MSW has thus been determined to be a governmental policy by Taiwan Provincial EPA. Some cities, such as Hu-Wei and Ho-Mei practiced this policy in different modes. Approaches of frequent field visiting, pre-activity planning, during-activity participation, and after review were taken to gain insight into the whole event from the beginning through the end. In addition, questionnaires were designed, distributed, collected, and analyzed. The results indicated that: (1) most citizens improved from lacking the knowledge of resource recovery to actually practicing it after rigorous family-wise propaganda distribution and explanation by a group of pay-by-hour student workers; (2) The residential participating percentage was ca. 70% in Hu-Wei city and ca. 80% in Chu-Ying community of Ho-Mei city; (3) practice on community basis was much more efficient than on city basis, because of the initiative generated by closer relationship between the community leader and the residents; (4) education of adults by each family's children (in elementary school) was extremely feasible to speed up adults' willingness to practice waste sorting.