Taiwan revises regulations on industrial waste reuse 
On June 24, 2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan released the revised “Measures for the management of reuse of industrial waste by the Ministry of Economic Affairs”. The Measures stipulate the types of industrial waste and permit-related regulations The main revisions to the Measures are as follows.
Revision of reuse methods
Article 3, which stipulates reuse of industrial waste, has been revised as follows (underlined parts are revised)
- Business operators reuse their own waste in their factories.
- Reuse in accordance with the types and methods specified in the appendix.
- Reuse in accordance with the methods specified by other central government agencies.
- Transported to a reuse agency for reuse after obtaining permission from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Extension of the approval period for reuse approval documents
In order to encourage the development of the resource reclamation industry, the permit term has been extended to 5 years in cases where the specified conditions are met (before the revision, it was 3 years in any case). The following is an example of the above conditions.
- If the reused product is a rare metal (gold, silver, palladium, platinum, iridium, rhodium, osmium, ruthenium, indium, gallium).
- If the reused product is a single metal of 90% or more purity other than the above rare metals, and the amount of solid waste generated in the reuse process is less than 20% of the total waste input of the project.
- When the reused product is subject to inspection based on the “Commodity Inspection Act “.
Revision of the supplementary table specifying the types and uses of industrial waste to be reused.
- Cobalt and manganese compound precipitates and stone scraps (processing scraps) have been added to the “Recyclable Resources Items” in accordance with the relevant norms of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and therefore have been deleted from the supplementary table of this Measures.
- Solid fuel (SRF)” was added to the reuse applications of waste wood.
- Raw materials for refractory materials” were added to the reuse applications of waste ceramics and pottery.
The original text of the revised law can be found at the following URL (in traditional Chinese).
https://law.moea.gov.tw/LawContentSource.aspx?id=FL011076
