Because of the increasing consuming abillty and the disposable consuming pattern, the volume of trash increases rapidly in Taiwan. Nowadays over 70% of landfills in Taiwan are over - loaded and new sites are difficult to find, which results in a serious waste disposal problem. Recycling can reduce the volume of trash, control the pollution, and extend the life - cycle of landfills and incinerators as well. Among Taiwan''''s three recycling systems, the garbage collecting system is the most widely practiced system in urban areas. Those collectors or waste vendors. The places storing and packaging recyclable items are called recycling centers.
Recyling is becoming more and more important in residential areas, and recycling station is widely set up in urban areas as well, Therefore, this research focuses on recycling centers in residential areas in Da - An and ChungShan Districts, Taipei. Using field surveys and questionnaire data, the author tries to explore the impact of recycling centers on residential environments. The author also tries to examine resident''''s willingness to accept the recycling station and the location of the recycling station as well. Furthermore, the author studies whether environmental attitudes have impacts on the willingness to accept the recycling station. In the last part of this research, the author examines whether there exists compatibility between recycling station and residential environments.
There are five major findings in this thesis:
(1).From the correlation analysis, the author finds that the willingness to accept depends on the duration of residence, the condition of building, land use patterns, necessity of placing recycling stations, relationships to everyday life, location of recycling stations and the information about recycling centers.
(2)."Environmental chaos'''' and "landscape exploitation" are the two most serious impacts to the residential environments.
(3).In terms of the willingness to accept, about 76% of the residents wil accept paper recycling stations, and 67% will accept aluminum recycling stations, and 65% will accept iron recycling stations, That is to say, over 60% of respondents will accept recycling centers in residential areas.
(4).Regarding the location of recycling centers, the most acceptable locations for recyclable paper, iron, and aluminum are "building in the same block" and "one street away".
(5).The worst impacts of recycling centers are landscape exploitation and environmental chaos, These are negative externalities which are easy to improve, therefore, there will be on incompatibility between recycling centers and residential land use.
The suggestions are as follows:
( 1).The recycling stations can be set up in the residential areas under the "conditional permit" land use regulations.
(2).In addition to the regulations before the set - up of the recycling stations, there should be regulations "after" the set - up of the recycling stations.
(3).The government should first lay out the performance standards for the recyling stations. These standards should include the evaluation of physical impacts to the environment .
(4).The government should make good use of the existing recycling systems, especially the garbage collectors.
This research only focuses on recycling stations from 20 to 50 pins (Taiwanese measurement unit), Future research should study recycling stations of different sizes and locations, The Principles of Compatibility Between Resources Recycling Centers and Residential Areas proposed in this thesis are preliminary principles. Future researchers should reevaluate and refine these principles.
