Free Talk》In the bustling Taichung Shopping Festival, who will take care of the food waste?

The Taichung Shopping Festival enters its 8th year, and it is also the last term under Mayor Lu Xiuyan’s term. (File photo)

On October 24th, the Taichung Shopping Festival will be held again. Cash, cars, and good houses were drawn in turns, and the city government invited people from all over the country to spend money in Taichung. However, as cities strive to turn crowds of people into money flows, another question should also be put on the table: After the tables are removed, who will clean up the remaining food waste?

Shopping festivals have the function of promoting business and city marketing. The question lies in how the government prioritizes its policies. Next year (2027), the "Economic Revitalization Festival Plan" including the shopping festival will allocate NT$395 million. In the face of continuous and considerable investment, do the environmental facilities that maintain the basic operation of the city also receive commensurate budgets and preparations?

After the African swine fever epidemic disrupted the food waste pig-raising pipeline, Taichung used three incineration plants to help process about 280 metric tons of cooked food waste every day, and also adopted emergency burial measures. These measures may be necessary for epidemic prevention, but they also expose the fragility of the original decentralization system: if a pipeline is closed, the city must bear the pressure of massive transfers.

Shopping Festival and Food Waste Dilemma It cannot be said that the accumulation of food waste is caused by the lottery. But both do reflect the government’s choices: Which activities can be mobilized and repeatedly publicized every year, and which risks should be left until the pipeline is interrupted before accelerating the search for exports?

The benefits of consumption are easy to see, but the costs of processing are often dispersed. The merchant's turnover becomes the political achievement, the cleanup fee falls on the community, the operational burden goes to the incineration plant, and the odor and traffic flow are borne by the residents around the facility. A complete economic account must include these costs together to judge how much public benefit prosperity leaves behind.

Therefore, the effectiveness of the shopping festival should also exceed the login amount. Can dining offers be combined with flexible portion sizes? Do activities simultaneously improve sorting and removal? Encouraging consumption and reducing waste can be designed together, so that the city's marketing capabilities can also become environmental governance capabilities.

Food waste policies also require verifiable accounting: how much of each type of food waste is generated, where it is sent, how much is actually processed, how much it costs per ton, and backup arrangements in the event of facility failure. Food waste collected every day should have a safe and stable destination.

A food waste policy requires a checkable ledger: how much is generated, where it is sent, how much is actually processed, how much it costs per ton, and backup arrangements in the event of facility failure; diagram. (File photo)

Taichung has the ability to make the shopping festival a lively one, and it should also have the ability to carefully arrange the responsibilities after consumption. For Taiwan's second largest city, prosperity cannot only be measured by the amount paid at checkout; whether the last bucket of food waste can be properly disposed of is also a matter of urban governance.

(The author is a Kaohsiung citizen)