王吉娜實習日誌16: 重新思考我的實習項目

 

重新思考我的實習項目

    今天在辦公室，我們著手準備實習專案的提案，以便明天進行展示。我原本打算以台灣的二噁英問題為課題，但在聽取建議縮小研究範圍並關注時事後，我發現台灣已實施了全球最嚴格的二噁英管控措施之一。因此，很難找到關於台灣當前二噁英問題的議題，因為相關討論大多集中在飛灰處理或進口海鮮（如螃蟹）中的二噁英含量上。

    我曾考慮過其他議題，例如廢棄物處理和電子垃圾問題，但在與 Jennifer 討論了她對台灣這些問題的了解後，我們最終選定了一個位於南投縣、毗鄰大型茶園的擬建垃圾焚燒廠項目作為課題。她給我看了一些視頻，公眾對這座焚燒廠的強烈反對情緒令我感到驚訝。儘管台灣擁有全球最出色的回收與減廢體系之一，卻仍面臨廢棄物過剩的難題。這主要是因為經濟繁榮和人口密度增加導致網購及外賣行業中一次性塑膠製品的使用量激增，加之回收設施老化破損、亟需修繕，從而造成了回收環節的瓶頸效應。這種狀況導致台灣出現了「垃圾山」並引發了污染問題。

地方政府提出興建焚化廠旨在解決廢棄物過剩問題，但當地居民擔心焚燒廠會產生有毒微粒，不僅危害健康，還會污染茶葉－而茶葉種植正是他們的生計來源。我覺得這背後或許還有更多隱情，但根據目前的資料，同一縣域內還發現了另一座「垃圾山」。

Rethinking My Internship Project

In the office today, we just worked on our internship project proposal in order to present them tomorrow. I originally wanted to do my project on dioxins in Taiwan, but after receiving feedback to narrow down my scope and focus on current day events, I found that Taiwan had developed one of the strictest dioxin restrictions in the world. So it was very difficult to find current issues on dioxins in Taiwan, as most of it was about fly ash and dioxin levels from crabs seafood imported from overseas. 

I thought about other options, such as waste disposal issues and e-waste, but after talking to Jennifer about what she knew about these issues in Taiwan, we settled on the proposed waste incinerator in Nantou County that was next to a large tea farm. She showed me some videos, and I was surprised at how strong the public reaction was against the incinerator. Taiwan struggles with an overflow of waste, despite having one of the best recycling and waste reduction programs in the world. This is because of the boom in the economy and the growing population density leading to an increased use of single-use plastics in online shopping and food delivery, as well as a deteriorating and aging recycling facilities that need repair. This causes a bottleneck effect in recycling, and this has resulted in some “garbage mountains” in Taiwan, as well as pollution. 

The incinerator was proposed by the local government as a solution to the overflow of waste, but the locals are fearful that the incinerator will create toxic particles that will affect their health and also go into the tea leaves, in which that make their livelihoods off of. I feel like there’s more to the story, but so far from what I’ve read there has also been another garbage mountain found in that same county.