Environmental Management Administration

Environmental hygiene is an important indicator of a country's image and citizens quality of life. To improve living standards, we have implemented the "Promotion Plan for High-Quality Public Restrooms and Beautiful Environments." This plan, initiated in 2017, aims to establish high-quality public restrooms and improve environmental quality. Local governments are actively involved, promoting public restroom enhancements and environmental cleaning and disinfection efforts, which have shown impressive results. Given the broad scope of environmental sanitation, future management will adhere to direct oversight principles, with local governments coordinating cross-departmental resources to achieve sustainable environmental goals.

The plan includes the renovation of old public restrooms, promotion of specialty public restrooms, local public restroom inspections, and QR code reporting. Enhancements are implemented in two directions: "hardware" and "software."

Hardware: renovating and building new public restrooms, promoting pre-fabricated scenic restrooms, and establishing specialty and gender-friendly public restrooms.

Software: supervising local governments in strengthening public restroom inventory and inspection, encouraging public QR code reporting, monitoring 24 smart public restrooms, and promoting restroom culture through radio campaigns.

Since 2019, the "Promotion Plan for High-Quality Public Restrooms and Beautiful Environments" has focused on elevating public health standards and environmental quality while also boosting tourism. Key components include subsidizing local governments to replace old public restrooms, constructing and renovating 4,000 public restrooms, improving the comfort and satisfaction of tourists through enhancing public restroom facilities and environments.

To ensure public restroom quality and friendliness, local governments follow the "Guidelines for Setting Up All Gender Restroom" for renovations and new constructions. Public restrooms in high-traffic areas are cataloged, assessed, and categorized for management, and inspected regularly to elevate public restroom culture.

Additionally, the plan also encourages public participation in evaluating public restrooms to monitor their environmental quality. It also organizes evaluations of outstanding public restrooms, commends management units, encouraging the provision of high-quality public restrooms and thus further promoting public restroom etiquette and culture. The plan further promotes smart sensors to enhance management efficiency.

The ultimate goal is to design comfortable, friendly public restrooms in line with universal international standards. Through public restroom design competitions, we aim to engage citizens in building multifunctional, comfortable, and reliable public restrooms.

From 2019 to 2024, the Ministry of Environment has actively promoted the "Promotion Plan for High-Quality Public Restrooms and Beautiful Environments," aimed at enhancing the physical quality of public restrooms to meet the "not dirty, not wet, not smelly" standard. During the program, subsidies were provided to local governments to renovate, improve, and build 4,290 public restrooms, with an investment totaling NT$1.65 billion.

To guide local governments in constructing and maintaining public restrooms, the Ministry of Environment introduced the "Guidelines for Setting Up All Gender Restroom," which demands considerations for general accessibility, gender-friendliness, family-friendliness, senior accessibility, and disability-friendliness. By the end of 2023, 953 gender-friendly, accessible, and family-friendly restrooms have received subsidies.

As of the end of 2023, more than 44,000 public restrooms have been established across Taiwan, and an evaluation system has been implemented that assesses every inventoried public restroom once a year. Among these, 95.8% achieved an "excellent" rating. Additionally, a QR code system is promoted to facilitate public feedback.

A promoted restroom culture encourages the public to use public restrooms properly and maintain cleanliness. In 2023, a public participation in public restroom assessment was held, achieving a satisfaction rate of 95.3%. A recognition event for outstanding public restrooms was also conducted, honoring 35 high-quality facilities and acknowledging the dedication of management teams.

During the Lunar New Year holiday in 2024, a public restroom quality reporting initiative was launched, with an average public rating of 4.6 out of 5, indicating widespread satisfaction with public restroom quality.

• Public Restroom Search and Display

Through the implementation of the plan, the construction and renovation of public toilets have been systematically documented for management, improving public restroom cleanliness and achieving sustainable development goals. Additionally, an attitude of user responsibility is fostered, strengthening public recognition of the importance of maintaining the quality of restroom environments and deepening appreciation for the daily efforts of maintenance teams. This collective appreciation and gratitude enhances Taiwan's overall public restroom quality, establishing "Quality Public Restrooms in Taiwan" and shaping a new culture around restroom usage. Both locals and foreign visitors can now tangibly experience improvements in Taiwan's restroom environment.