Journal of Minerals & Materials Characterization & Engineering, Vol. 1, No.2, pp121-129, 2002
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved
121
HOUSEHOLD SOLID WASTE RECYCLING INDUCED PRODUCTION
VALUES AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN TAIWAN
Esher Hsu1 and Chen-Ming Kuo2
1Department. of Statistics, National Taipei Univ., Taipei 104, Taiwan
2Department. of Mechanical Eng., I-Shou Univ., Kaohsiung 84008, Taiwan
Abstract
Household solid waste recycling has been a major policy of the Taiwan
Environmental Protection Administration. Production values and employment
opportunities from recycling are not only a major focus of Taiwan’s Congress,
but also the major goal of recycling policies for the EPA. In this study,
production values and employment opportunities induced by household solid
waste recycling were estimated from a sampling survey. The estimated
production values in 1998 were NT$26.9 (USD$0.27) billion from
collection/sorting business and NT$44.6 (USD$1.27) billion from the
recycling industry. Total estimated added value was approximately NT$35
(USD$1) billion, of which NT$15.5 (USD$0.44) billion was from the
collection/sorting business and $19.5 (USD$0.56) billion was from recycling.
The collection/sorting business represents about 0.28% of gross domestic
product (GDP) in the service sector, and the recycling industry represents
about 0.8% of GDP in manufacturing sector in 1998. The combined
employment was 189,551, of which 182,538 was collection/sorting business
(3.69% of service jobs) and 7,013 positions (0.27% manufacturing jobs) in
1998.

122 Esher Hsu and Chen-Ming Kuo Vol. 1, No. 2
Introduction
According to the official statistical analysis [1], the total household waste generated in
Taiwan in 1999 was 8.88 million tons with an average 1.082 kg daily waste produced per
person. In a small island with limited land, resources, and a high population density, such a
high volume of waste generation has caused serious environmental problems. In recent years,
spurred by the lack of landfill sites and the increasing cost of waste disposal, the reduction of
the volume of waste disposal has become an important goal of public policy while recycling
of solid waste has become an increasingly urgent issue in Taiwan. Therefore, household solid
waste recycling has become the major policy of Taiwan Environmental Protection
Administration (EPA).
The “4-in-1” recycling system was implemented by Taiwan EPA on March 3, 1997, to
integrate 4 major players, namely, the communities, the local government solid waste
cleaning crews, the recycling and waste disposal industry, and the recycling foundation. The
“4 in 1” goal is to improve the efficiency of recycling. Under this recycling system, the
recycling of waste packaging containers and solid waste products is required. The waste
packaging containers are defined as iron cans, aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic
containers, paper containers, aluminum foiled paper packs. The solid waste products are
defined as batteries, tires, lubricant oil, motor vehicles, home appliances (TV sets,
refrigerators, air conditions, and washing machines), and computers. In order to compensate
this household recycling system, the EPA has charged associated manufacturers and
importers recycling fees of around NT$4.6 (USD0.13) billion1 in 1999 [1]. Recently, the
payers of these recycling fee and congressmen/congresswomen have questioned the
performance and effectiveness of this recycling system and the expense of the recycling fees.
How to evaluate the recycling performance and effectiveness has become the key issue for
EPA.
In this study, production values and employment opportunities induced by the household
waste recycling were analyzed to evaluate the recycling performance and effectiveness. The
production values and employment opportunities were estimated based on a sampling survey
where the ratio estimation was used to increase the precision of estimation. Survey results
show that the estimated production values in 1998 were NT$26.9 (USD$0.27) billion from
collection/sorting business and NT$44.6 (USD$1.27) billion from the recycling industry.
Total estimated added value was approximately NT$35 (USD$1) billion, of which NT$15.5
(USD$0.44) billion was from the collection/sorting business and $19.5 (USD$0.56) billion
was from recycling. The combined employment was 189,551, of which 182,538 was
collection/sorting business (3.69% of service jobs) and 7,013 positions (0.27% manufacturing
jobs) in 1998.
Based on the background data of employees in the recycling market, it was found that a
high percentage of employees have a low level of education and are of older age. That
implies that the recycling market in Taiwan provides potential job opportunities for older,
less-educated laborers.
1 1 USD ˜ 35 NT$ as of February 2002.

Vol. 1, No. 2 Household Solid Waste Recycling Induced Production Values and Employment 123
Methodology
The aim of present study is to estimate production values and employment opportunities
induced by household waste recycling in Taiwan. During the survey period, year 1999, the
list of mandatory recycling items includes waste packaging containers and solid waste
products as already mentioned earlier and the target survey population includes all related
collectors and recycling plants of household solid waste in Taiwan, which consists of 1,926
collectors and 146 recycling plants.
Systematic sampling combined with stratification was used to select a probability
sample of collectors for each recycling item, whereas, the ratio estimator was used to
estimate the corresponding production values and employment opportunities. The
fundamental principle of sampling survey theory [2] states that if sampling units can be
classified into strata that are internally selected from each stratum, then the variance of
overall estimators may be reduced. Due to the influence of socioeconomic characteristics and
the environmental policies of local government on the waste recycling system, collectors
were stratified based on counties. It is commonly believed that the production values and
employment opportunities vary considerably with different counties, thus there are 23 strata
in all. From each county, a systematic sample with 455 collectors was selected, and
consequently, these selected collectors were surveyed to obtain related information of
production values and employment opportunities of collecting recyclable household waste
[3].
In Taiwan, the number and scale of recycling plants varies considerably among the items
listed for required recycling. The variations were considered in the calculation. A small
number of large recycling plants handle a larger volume of many of the required recyling
items. On the other hand, certain recycling items are handled in a larger number of smaller
recycling plants. Thus, the sampling with probability proportional to size was used to select
the sample. There were totally 81 selected recycling plants, which were surveyed to obtain
related information of their production values and employment opportunities regarding their
waste recycling. In the surveying of both collectors and recycling plants, face-to-face
interviews were conducted to collect data in order to ensure the precision of the estimates and
reduce the non-response rate.
In the statistical analyses, the ratio estimation was used to estimate the recycled
quantities first, and then the production values and employment opportunities induced by
household waste recycling were estimated via the estimated recycled quantities. The ratio
estimation was used in this study because of the following reasons: (1) the true population
size of recycling plants (collectors) is unknown, (2) the audited amount of household waste
recycling is known, and (3) the audited amount and recycling amount are highly correlated.
Under this situation, by using the auxiliary variable, auditing amount, the precision of the
estimates could be increased. Although the ratio estimation is a biased estimation for large
sample size, the bias could be ignored. Hedayat and Sinha [4] mentioned that increasing
sample size is one of the methods to reduce the bias. In this study, the large sample size,
given the audited amount in 1998 and the positive linear correlation between the audited
amount and recycled amount provided the ideal conditions to use ratio estimation. It is
believed that using the audited amount as an auxiliary variable to estimate the recycled

124 Esher Hsu and Chen-Ming Kuo Vol. 1, No. 2
amount will increase the precision of the estimation under this situation. The estimation
methods are described as followings:
Estimation of recycled amount
The ratio of audited amount to recycled amount is estimated first by using the sample
data as given by
∑
∑
=
=
=
h
h
n
i
hi
n
i
hi
h
y
x
R
1
1
ˆ, (1)
where hi x and hi y are respectively the audited amount and recycled amount of the ith
collector (recycling plant) for the hth item, and h
R
ˆ is the estimated ratio of recycling item h.
Then we estimate the total recycled amount based on the estimated R. The estimate of total
recycled amount h Y is given by
hhh RXY ˆ
/
ˆ=, (2)
where h X is the audited amount of population in 1998 for recycled item h, and h Y
ˆ is the
estimated total recycled amount for recycled item h.
Estimations of production values, value-added, and employment opportunities
The estimated total recycled amount in equation (2) is used to estimate production
values and employment opportunities as shown in the following equations
hhh PYV ˆˆˆ ⋅= (3)
hhh UYL ˆˆˆ ⋅= (4)
where h
P
ˆ is the estimated unit price of recycled material for recycled item h, and h
V
ˆ is the
estimated production value; h
U
ˆ is the estimated labor input per unit recycled amount for item
h, and h
L
ˆ is the estimated employment induced.
In principle, value-added represents gross domestic production (GDP) based on market
value, which is calculated by taking off intermediate costs from production value. In this
study, value-added for each item is generated by multiplying production value with
corresponding value-added rate; while the value-added rate is calculated based on “National
Income of Taiwan” issued by the Directorate-General of Budgets, Accounting, and Statistics
in 1998 [5].

Vol. 1, No. 2 Household Solid Waste Recycling Induced Production Values and Employment 125
Estimated production value and value-added of recycling market
Based on a sampling survey and the ratio estimation described above, this study shows
that the Taiwan recycling market in 1998, which includes household waste container
recycling and solid waste recycling, generated about NT$26.9 (USD$0.27) billion production
values for waste collectors and NT$44.6 (USD$1.27) billion for recyclers, as shown in Table
I. The data show that waste iron can collectors and waste aluminum can recyclers are the
greatest contributors of production value in the collecting business and recycling industry,
respectively. The waste iron can collectors contributed about 33% production value for
collecting side, and the waste aluminum can recyclers contributed about 42% production
value for recycling side.
Also shown in Table I, the estimated value-added shows that the Taiwan recycling
market in 1998 generated about NT$35 (USD$1) billion. Of this total, collectors contributed
about NT$15.5 (USD$0.44) billion and recyclers NT$19.5 (USD$0.56) billion, respectively
(see Table I for details). The waste collectors contributed about 0.28% of GDP to the service
sector, and the recyclers contributed about 0.8% of GDP in the manufacturing industrial
sector in 1998.
Estimated employment opportunities of recycling market
Table II reveals that the recycling market in Taiwan provides 189,551 employment
opportunities. Compared with the total employed population of Taiwan in 1998 of 9.289
million [6], the recycling market is around 2% of total employed population in Taiwan. The
collection business part of the total was 182,538 and this amounts to about 3.69% of total
employed population in the service sector. The recycling industry part of the total was 7,013
positions which amounts to around 0.27% of the total employed population of the
manufacturing sector in 1998. The background of employees in recycling market is shown in
Table III and IV for collection business and recycling industry, respectively. Table III
indicates that the employees of the collection businesses have low-level education and high
age for waste container collectors. Results also show that high percentages of waste container
collectors have only an elementary school education or less, and their ages average more than
50. In contrast, the solid waste collector employees are middle aged and have middle-level
education. High percentages of solid waste collectors have a high school education, and their
ages lie between 30 and 50. Table IV shows that the employees of the waste recycling
industry have a high percentage who obtained a middle-level education and are of middle
age. The age of employees in the recycling sector tended to be much younger than that of
employees in the collection sector, while the education level of the recycling sector was also
higher than that of the collection sector. According to the results, the average education level
in the recycling market is below high school level. This data implies that the recycling market
in Taiwan presently provides the benefits of job opportunities for low-level educated and high
age laborers and in the near future, the recycling market may provide even larger potential
employment opportunities for unemployed, less educated, older laborers.

126 Esher Hsu and Chen-Ming Kuo Vol. 1, No. 2
Table I: Estimated production values and value-added of recycling market (1998)
Unit: million NT$
Recycling Item Production Values Value-added
Collectors Recyclers Collectors Recyclers Subtotal
Waste Containers 3,114 3,854 1,793 1,383 3,176
Iron cans 1,023 384 589 143 732
Aluminum cans 700 1,630 403 606 1,009
Paper containers 333 3 192 1 193
Glass bottles 139 1,053 80 356 436
Plastic containers 884 769 509 272 781
Pesticide containers 35 15 20 5 25
Other Solid Wastes 23,739 40,780 13,661 18,155 31,816
Automobiles 239 21 138 7 145
Tires 1,169 289 672 104 776
Lubricant oil 32 39,731 18 17,792 17,810
Lead Batteries 22,299 739 12,833 252 13,085
Total 26,853 44,634 15,454 19,538 34,992
Table II: Estimated employment opportunities of recycling market (1998)
Unit: persons
Recycling Item Employment opportunities
Collectors Recyclers Total
Waste Containers 15,816 2,540 18,356
Iron cans 5,670 56 5,726
Aluminum cans 2,978 214 2,192
Paper containers 1,908 59 1,967
Glass bottles 851 1,610 2,461
Plastic containers 4,227 595 4,822
Pesticide containers 182 6 188
Other Solid Wastes 166,722 4,473 171,195
Automobiles 1,348 15 1,363
Tires 6,679 486 7,165
Lubricant oil 961 3,915 4,876
Lead Batteries 157,734 57 157,791
Total 182,538 7,013 189,551

Vol. 1, No. 2 Household Solid Waste Recycling Induced Production Values and Employment 127
Table III: Background of employees in Taiwan recycling market – collection business
Unit: %
Recycling Item Employees of Waste Collection
Education Age
Elementary school
and below
High school College and
above
Below 30 30~50 Above 50
Waste Containers 55.9 40.8 3.2 13.3 53.8 32.9
Iron cans 57.5 37.9 4.6 12.4 45.9 41.7
Aluminum cans 50.1 47.9 2.0 8.6 46.9 44.5
Paper containers 56.5 37.8 5.7 14.5 54.5 30.9
Glass bottles 54.9 44.1 0.9 10.8 37.4 51.8
Plastic containers 59.2 39.2 1.6 6.5 47.5 46.0
Pesticide containers 24.6 74.1 1.3 19.1 56.2 24.7
Other Solid Wastes 42.2 41.7 16.1 26.4 54.8 18.8
Automobiles 38.4 51.1 10.5 24.1 54.9 21.0
Tires 13.4 63.4 23.2 38.1 55.7 6.2
Lubricant oil 5.3 73.9 20.8 38.9 54.6 6.5
Lead Batteries 43.7 40.5 15.8 25.8 54.8 19.4
Table IV: Background of employees in Taiwan recycling market – recycling industry
Unit: %
Recycling Item Employees of Waste Recycling Plants
Education Age
Elementary school
and below
High school College and
above
Below 30 30~50 Above 50
Waste Containers 24.88 57.24 17.88 37.21 53.07 9.72
Iron cans 51.21 44.32 3.97 6.72 89.14 4.14
Aluminum cans 4.39 85.37 10.24 30.81 60.39 8.80
Paper containers 29.92 54.51 15.57 26.17 59.40 14.50
Glass bottles 29.83 48.07 22.10 38.12 53.59 8.29
Plastic containers 16.09 73.26 10.65 40.84 45.19 13.97
Pesticide containers 16.67 66.66 16.67 67.86 32.14 0
Other Solid Wastes 4.81 60.87 34.32 3.06 71.65 25.29
Automobiles 0.00 84.60 15.40 46.15 38.46 15.38
Tires 11.90 76.92 11.19 22.24 65.50 12.26
Lubricant oil 4.01 58.78 37.22 0.57 72.13 27.30
Lead Batteries 0.00 63.80 36.20 0.00 100.00 0.00
Conclusions
Taiwan EPA’s “4-in-1” recycling system has been implemented since 1997. Due to the
large amount of funding for recycling, the performance and effectiveness of reccyling has
become an important issue for the fund payers, budget auditors
(congressmen/congresswomen), and EPA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the recycling
performance and effectiveness based on the production values and employment opportunities

128 Esher Hsu and Chen-Ming Kuo Vol. 1, No. 2
provided by the recycling market.
Results show that Taiwan recycling market in 1998 generated NT$26.9 (USD$0.27)
billion from collection/sorting business and NT$44.6 (USD$1.27) billion from the recycling
industry. Total estimated added value was approximately NT$35 (USD$1) billion, of which
NT$15.5 (USD$0.44) billion was from the collection/sorting business and NT$19.5
(USD$0.56) billion was from recycling. The collection/sorting business represents about
0.28% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the service sector, and the recycling industry
represents about 0.8% of GDP in manufacturing sector in 1998. Moreover, results also show
that the recycling market provided 189,551, which is around 2% of total employed
population in Taiwan. Of this total, 182,538 was collection/sorting business (3.69% of service
jobs) and 7,013 positions (0.27% manufacturing jobs) in 1998.
The background of employees in the recycling market shows that a high percentage of
employees have a low-level of education and are older in age. That implies that the recycling
market in Taiwan provides potential jobs for a part of the population that would be able to
benefit from these opportunities.
Similar to other developed countries, the industrial structure has changed in Taiwan.
Currently, high technology industries increasingly dominate the Taiwan economy, while the
traditional industries are experiencing recession. The rising of unemployment rate is
accelerated by the unemployed laborers from traditional industries. It is increasingly difficult
to obtain a job in the high technology industries especially for those older unemployed
laborers with a low-level of education. According to this study, the average education level in
recycling industries is below the high school level. In the near future, the recycling industries
may provide an even larger potential of employment opportunities for those low-level
educated laborers. Although the collection and recycling industry has many problems to
solve, the recycling system implemented by the government has significant potential to
imrpove economic efficiency by way of the production values generated by collection and
recycling of refuse and waste and the added benefits of potential employment opportunities.
The government program to require the collection and recycling of household waste has
stimulated the development of the waste recycling industry and that will also bring
environmental benefits to the country of a cleaner landscape, better use of land areas, and
employment for older laborers.
Acknowledgements
The first author (Esher Hsu) would like to acknowledge that Taiwan EPA with project
number EPA-044-880-129 support this research.

Vol. 1, No. 2 Household Solid Waste Recycling Induced Production Values and Employment 129
References
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