Taiwan has dumped nearly a million metric tons of rubbish into open-air garbage heaps around the country, with more being added every day. The government says it's a temporary solution but local communities say the trash towers are polluting their neighborhoods.
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00:00Nearly every week, mother of three, Peng Guizhi, comes to this stream near her home in Judong,
00:06northern Taiwan, to test its waters.
00:10Using a science kit she got from a local school, Peng checks for dangerous chemicals and pollution
00:14leaching, sharing her findings online.
00:18She's worried the water is contaminated.
00:21Not far from here, the local government has disposed some 5,000 tonnes of garbage.
00:27The garbage has turned into a waterfall in the stream, and underneath it there is no rain.
00:33We are worried that the water will flow into the mountain,
00:38and end up in the drain where we all drink tap water.
00:44It's a big risk.
00:46For more than six years, the 100,000 residents of Judong have lived in the shadow of this mountain of trash.
00:53Its stench hangs over the town, and the filth is breeding mosquitoes and other pests
00:58that are a risk to public health.
01:00This garbage is piling on top of a landfill site that closed decades ago,
01:04but the local government says they have nowhere else to put it.
01:08The county is making more refuse than it can dispose of, and this is meant to be a temporary solution.
01:15But every day, seven tonnes of garbage is being added to this pile.
01:20Judong is not alone.
01:22There are more than 100 of these open-air garbage piles in communities across the country,
01:28totalling nearly one million metric tonnes of waste,
01:32polluting waterways, killing wildlife, and even catching fire.
01:38Taiwan recycles more than half of its rubbish,
01:41and burns most of what's left in more than 20 incinerators across the country.
01:46Many of the facilities are more than two decades old and are due for refurbishment.
01:51And while they are offline, the waste piles up.
01:55The national government has earmarked nearly US$40 million to build more incinerators
02:00and to help local governments handle the current situation.
02:17Despite Taiwan's high recycling rate, environmental groups warn that the country
02:22is still generating an increasing amount of rubbish, particularly plastic.
02:27They say people here became overly dependent on single-use food and beverage containers
02:33during the pandemic, and that this bad habit is fuelling the rising tide of trash.
02:47Even in Judong, where Taiwan's mountain of garbage quite literally looms large,
02:53Peng says it's hard to get people to face up to the scale of the environmental crisis.
03:17Like much of Taiwan, Judong has prospered in recent years.
03:21The country's tech-based economy is booming, and quality of life here is on the up.
03:26But with that prosperity has come more waste.
03:29And, as is evident here, if that's not managed responsibly,
03:33it can become more than just a blight on the local landscape.
03:37Chris Ma and Rick Lowatt in Hsinchu County for Taiwan Plus.