Since 1997, Taiwan has been promoting community residents to engage in household waste sorting, combining the efforts of local governments (cleaning teams), recycling enterprises, and the Recycling Fund to collect and reuse various types of small recyclable waste generated by households. Through the integration of these four entities, a comprehensive recycling network has been established to ensure a complete recycling cycle (Figure 1).

The main business of the Resource Circulation Administration(RECA) is responsible for the revenue, custody, and utilization of the Resource Recycling Management Fund, promoting various resource recycling policies and plans, vertically integrating central and local resources, horizontally combining the efforts of government, industry, academia, and research, constructing a comprehensive recycling and disposal system, and ensuring smooth operation of the recycling system.

According to Article 15, Paragraph 2, of the Waste Disposal Act, the Environmental Protection Administration has announced 13 major categories (33 items) of waste that should be recycled. The RECA commissions auditing and certification organizations to perform tasks to verify the quantity of recycling and disposal through auditing and certification. It also manages 1,623 listed recycling companies and 716 registered recycling/processing companies in Taiwan, of which 298 companies have become subsidized organizations. The recycling and processing system of Taiwan has been constructed through the mechanism of issuing subsidy fees.