Environmental Management Administration

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions, countries have actively promoted low-carbon transportation in recent years. In Taiwan, household waste collection primarily involves curbside collection, resulting in frequent starts and stops of garbage trucks and high fuel consumption (most garbage trucks use traditional diesel engines, and their emissions are also a concern for the public). To support international efforts in saving energy and reducing carbon, subsidies are provided for local governments to replace old garbage trucks with low-carbon trucks.

Electric Compactor Garbage Trucks: these trucks combine electric compacting technology with traditional garbage trucks, allowing the diesel engine to be turned off during collection stops, using electric power for compacting instead. This achieves zero idling, zero emissions, and reduced noise during compacting.

Lightweight Garbage Trucks: these trucks use a lightweight chassis in place of the conventional engine-powered compactor garbage truck design. For a 6-cubic-meter garbage truck, the lightweight truck can use a chassis weighing between 8.55 to 9.5 tons, resulting in a total unladen weight of 5 to 5.3 tons. This is up to 23% lighter than traditional trucks, which typically use a 10.4-ton chassis (with an unladen weight of 6.1 to 6.5 tons), thus achieving energy-saving and carbon-reduction benefits.

To promote low-carbon garbage collection operations, the Ministry of Environment drafted a joint supply contract for sealed compactor garbage trucks (engine-powered) in 2007; an additional contract for sealed compactor garbage trucks (electric compactor models) in 2014; and added lightweight garbage trucks in the electric compactor contract in 2019, renaming the contract as the joint supply contract for sealed compactor garbage trucks (low-carbon garbage trucks).

To promote low-carbon garbage collection operations, since 2016, subsidies have been provided to local governments for the replacement of garbage trucks with low-carbon trucks. According to tallies, there are 5,563 garbage trucks nationwide, including 3,809 engine-powered compactor trucks (68.5%), 440 frame (box) trucks (7.9%), 1,075 electric compactor trucks (19.3%), and 239 lightweight engine-powered trucks (4.3%). Among these, 1,314 are classified as low-carbon garbage trucks (electric compactor and lightweight engine-powered), accounting for approximately 23.6% or nearly a quarter of the fleet.

Nationwide, there are now 1,314 low-carbon garbage trucks (with 810 subsidized by the administration and 504 purchased by local governments). From 2014 to 2023, approximately 5.3 million liters of fuel have been saved and 14,700 tons of carbon emissions reduced.

The subsidy policy and promotion of low-carbon garbage trucks have yielded significant results. With continued efforts by the administration, low-carbon garbage trucks now make up 23.6% of garbage collection operations nationwide. In the future, the administration will persist in advancing the adoption of low-carbon transportation to further contribute to environmental protection efforts.