Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

Starting May 1, 2019, Taipei and New Taipei will begin accepting both cities’ designated trash bags. To enhance everyday convenience, whenever residents from these cities find necessary, they will be allowed to use designated trash bags or reusable shopping-turned-trash bags from either city to store their household garbage and bring them to cleaning teams for collection.

On April 29, Taipei City Government’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) stated that the mayors of the two municipalities have reached an agreement to accept either city’s trash bags during their earlier meeting on March 11. New Taipei City will reduce the price of its designated trash bags to be the same as those of Taipei City at NTD 0.36 per liter starting May 1. For better overall convenience, Taipei and New Taipei have established the Twin Taipei Cities Designated Trash Bags Mutual Acceptance Promotion Team to look into supplemental related measures. Under the revised statutory announcement, the policy in regards to mutual acceptance of trash bags between Taipei and New Taipei will be officially effective starting May 1 as well.

DEP stated that the twin Taipei cities are both implementing the Per-bag Trash Collection Fee policy and have both launched reusable shopping-turned-trash bags in compliance with plastics reduction policy. Taipei City and New Taipei City constitute the Greater Taipei living sphere; the daily routines, jobs, and commutes of the cities’ residents have long been close-knit. Whenever they found necessary, they could easily purchase designated trash bags or reusable shopping-turned-trash bags at convenience stores, supermarkets, or hypermarkets in either city.

The agency pointed out that, after the implementation of the twin Taipei cities’ trash bag mutual acceptance project, Taipei City residents will be able to use the designated trash bags or reusable shopping-turned-trash bags from either city to store their household garbage and bring them to cleaning teams for collection. This will not only resolve the inconvenience of not being able to use designated trash bags from either city, but will also reinforce waste reduction at the source and enhance overall living expediency and green lifestyles, benefiting all residents.