Taiwan: Recycling plant grows from scrap

Handling e-waste recycling is an important but rather complicated task because if we throw away the computer in the home garden for a long time, the components in the machine will leak harmful toxins into the soil. for the environment as well as those around it. And, it is also an extremely important thing in Taiwan with a small area of ​​only 36,190 km ² with a population of 23 million people.

Because Taiwan produces more electronic products than any other country by per capita and is also home to many large electronics companies such as Foxconn, Asus, Acer, Via and HTC, so the problem of handling Electronic waste is increasingly concerned.

"The plant will grow out of garbage , " said the man wearing the helmet, smiling and pointing to the bustling construction site behind him. That man is Arthur Huang - an architect, urban design expert and one of Taiwan's top entrepreneurs.

The factory under construction is located about 1 hour from the capital of Taipei. It was established to handle recycling of e-waste generated by people living on the island as well as technology companies. But Arthur Huang wants to do more."The plant is not only responsible for recycling electronic waste, filtering out gold and copper from discarded computers and mobile phones, but it itself is built from recycled materials from waste," he said. In addition, the factory also complies with the highest environmental standards of any recycling plant in the world.

Arthur Hunag also pointed out the model of a future factory - the factory ceiling was built from old CDs or DVDs, walls made of recycled fiberglass from computer motherboards. Through his works, Arthur Huang wanted to prove to the world that the materials made from garbage can be used to build solid buildings to withstand storms and fire.

Model of e-waste treatment plant - a new construction project of Miniwiz.

Arthur Huang runs Miniwiz, a start-up from developing environmentally friendly construction projects. The e-waste treatment plant is one of Miniwiz's largest and newest projects, coordinated with one of Taiwan's leading recycling companies, SDTI.

GT Ding, SDTI technology expert, points to a big box of about 2kg of gold and explains: "This gold is filtered from more than 10,000 computer motherboards. Our island is very valuable and impossible. Just throwing away rubbish so we need effective solutions ".

Everything waste is paid attention by the Taiwanese government to be environmentally friendly. A few years ago, garbage was often dumped into burial pits but it was not easy to find a space large enough to contain garbage when 70% of the island's land area was covered by mountains. In 2010, the Taiwanese government adopted a policy of removing landfills on the island, encouraging waste recycling and promoting sustainable development.

Professor Hsiao Kang Ma from Taiwan University said that some of the current factories in Taiwan make paper furniture in place of wood, and the island is known for its ecological clothing. Taiwan even uses recycled polyester fabric from plastic bottles to make clothes for 9 football teams to compete in the World Cup in South Africa. This type of eco-shirt is characterized by being lighter than conventional material while absorbing sweat better.

About 2kg of gold is filtered out from over 10,000 computer motherboards.

Alex Lo, CEO of Taiwanese textile company Super Textile Corporation, said: " The production process also uses less water and energy. We only use colored plastic bottles to avoid using dyes. ".

But, despite the efforts of the Taiwanese government, people still have not paid adequate attention to environmental protection. After the government banned the deployment of more landfills, the islanders turned to using incinerators rather than concentrating garbage on recycling plants. As a result, 26 incineration centers sprouted throughout Taiwan.

The Greenpeace (Greenpeace) environmental organization warns that burning garbage is even more dangerous than littering!"The incinerators are not a solution to the problem of waste disposal because the atmosphere will be poisoned by dioxins and other dangerous chemicals," the spokesman explained. However, Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that the island will be more progressive.

A bus stop in southern Taiwan is built from plastic bottles.

Music trucks dumping music on every street in Taipei twice a day to collect garbage and Miniwiz helps turn them into useful things. In 2010, the EcoArc 24 meter high building was built from 1.5 million plastic bottles!

According to environmentalists, plastic products are a global problem - millions of tons of plastic products are thrown around the world's oceans. Taiwanese people throw away about 4.5 billion plastic bottles every year!

Arthur Huang's Miniwiz company not only stopped at buildings that grew from garbage, but also researched and designed to build hundreds of bus stations in southern Taiwan - all of them formed from . plastic bottles processing.

Arthur Huang said Miniwiz Company is researching to design an ecological theater for China's Shanghai city. Due to the lack of space as well as raw materials, Taiwanese companies are forced to invest in the waste recycling industry to make the world greener.