Newsletter
WASTE DISPOSAL ACT AMENDED
In February 2003 the Environmental Protection Administration launched a campaign to limit the use of plastic bags, under which it began im-posing administrative fines of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000 on catering businesses that offered free plastic bags to customers unprompted. However, the high level of fines does not con-form to the principle of proportionality, and ef-fectiveness of enforcement has been poor.
The Legislative Yuan recently enacted amend-ments to the Waste Disposal Act to reduce the range of fines to NT$1,200 to NT$6,000, and to allow successive daily fines to be levied if an offender fails to rectify his conduct after being given notice to do so with a specified period. The reduction in fines should lead to more ef-fective enforcement of the legislation.