Legal Development in Sustainable Solid Waste Management Law and Policy in Taiwan: Lessons from Comparative Analysis Between EU and U.S.

In recent years, the incorporation of the 4R principles: recovery, reduction, reuse and recycling into the waste management law and policy framework has become an important international trend. In response to the growing demands of sustainable waste management, the TEPA formulated a legal task force to propose a new waste management legislation entitled the bill of "Wasted Resource Closed-Loop Recycling". The Legal Proposal incorporates sustainable waste management principles, such as the 4R principles, waste minimization, and extended producers responsibilities. This article will introduce the theoretical backgrounds and some fundamental environmental principles of sustainable waste management. The attention will be turned on to the legal experience of implementing sustainable waste management approaches in the EU and U.S. The study will include the evaluation of the promise and limits of solid waste management legislations implemented in light of EU, U.S. and Taiwan's legal development. Based on the comparative legal study in this article, some observations and recommendations for the refinement of future sustainable waste management legal framework will also be provided.