EPA AMENDS REGULATIONS ON ENTERPRISES RESPONSI-BLE FOR RECYCLABLE WASTE

07/01/2005

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The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced amendments to the Regulations Governing Enterprises Responsible for Regu-lated Recyclable Waste. The main points are as follows:

Online reporting of quantities produced, sold or imported

Article 6 of the Regulations provides that by the 30th of each odd-numbered month, enter-prises responsible for recovering regulated recyclable wastes (“responsible enterprises”) must report to the EPA their production/sale or import quantities of such wastes for the pre-vious two months, submitting quantity state-ments and proof of payment of collection, removal and disposal fees.

To improve operational efficiency in the electronic age, the EPA is introducing online reporting of production/sale and import quan-tities. The implementation timetable is as follows:

1.Responsible enterprises with a paid-in capital of NT$10 million or more should report their production/sale or import quantities online from 1 May 2005.

2.Responsible enterprises with a paid-in capital of less than NT$10 million should report their production/sale or import quantities online from 1 November 2005.

Enterprises that report online are not required to submit physical statements of their produc-tion/sale or import quantities.

The former provision whereby the production quantity of containers such as cake and bread cartons, fresh produce trays, and disposable tableware could be calculated by subtracting the quantity of material lost in the production process from the quantity of flat-board mate-rial purchased, is changed to make the actual production quantity the only basis for calcu-lating charges.