Solar Powered Monitors Used to Capture Illegal Dumping 彰化採用太陽能監視器 亂丟垃圾全都錄

Changhua City is using solar-powered mobile monitors to solve littering problems. From January to October this year, 46 fines were issued.
 

At 2 a.m. on the 23rd of last month, a car stopped on the side of Changhua City's Hsinping Road. Two men got out of the car and threw away more than 10 boxes of trash on the side of the road and immediately left. The entire incident was captured by a mobile solar CCTV and the city has fined the perpetrators.

Lin Shih-hsien, Changhua City Mayor: “Usually, this happens in more remote areas, especially on those industrial roads in the mountains. Those are more remote and sparsely populated places.”

This dumping hot spot is located at the side of the culvert under the highway. Locals said that it is located at the intersection of three townships, but few vehicles pass by at night. Dumped waste is often found here, even from other counties and cities, which has become a headache.

Local resident: “Motorcycles going from Changhua City to Lukang or Shioushuei will pass here. (And they just throw away their trash?) Yes, that's right.”

Changhua City has set up a weapon to ban littering. It not only uses solar energy to operate but also allows 360-degree circular monitoring. After the image is taken, the city's clean team fines people using the images. 46 fines have already been issued from January to October this year. The clean team has three such solar CCTVs, but they are not without shortcomings.

Lu Ching-chin, Clean Team Leader, Changhua City: “The situation we have encountered is if there is no sun during cloudy rainy days, our CCTVs cannot operate.”

The Changhua City clean team stated that a fine of NT$1,200 to NT$6,000 will be issued for littering. If it's industrial waste, a fine of less than NT$3 million can be imposed. Monitoring locations can be changed at any time to prevent arbitrary disposal of garbage.

上個月23日半夜兩點，彰化市的新平路旁，監視器畫面拍到，一輛小轎車停下，其中一人從車上把垃圾往路旁丟，另一個人則是在後面把風，一連丟了十多包，兩個人隨即上車離開，但過程全都被移動式的太陽能監視器拍下來，彰化市公所也對行為人開罰。

彰化市長林世賢表示：「通常都是比較偏僻的，尤其是山上那些產業道路，那些比較偏僻，人煙稀至的地方，人很少的地方。」

回到這個棄置熱點， 就位在高速公路下的涵洞邊，當地民眾表示，這裡位於三個鄉鎮的交會，但是夜間往來的車輛少，經常發現被亂丟廢棄物，甚至還有從外縣市來的，成了頭痛問題。

當地居民表示：「因為（從彰化市）要去鹿港，要去秀水的，機車都會經過這裡。」

而彰化市公所在一旁架設的，就是取締亂丟的利器，不止利用太陽能運作，還可以360度環狀監控，拍下影像後清潔隊以車追人開罰，今年的1到10月已經取締了46件 。而這樣的太陽能監視器，清潔隊有三台， 但也不是沒有缺點。

彰化市清潔隊長呂靜琴表示：「我們有遇到的情形就是，之前的陰雨綿綿的幾天，我們有一次是大概有兩天，（因為沒有太陽）沒辦法，拍攝到現場的狀況。」

彰化市清潔隊表示，亂丟垃圾一旦被查獲，會以依情節開罰1200到6000元，若是棄置事業廢棄物，更將處300萬以下罰鍰，也將隨時更換監控位置，杜絕任意棄置垃圾的行為。