Department of Environmental Protection, Taipei City Government

        To protect the residential environment and improve the quality of life in Taipei City, the Department of Environmental Protection has focused its organizational reforms on preventing pollution and maintaining environmental cleanliness.
        On July 1, 1968, Taipei City was upgraded to the status of a municipality. The Department of Environmental Protection’s basic duties include sanitation maintenance and waste management, namely the treatment of sanitary sewage and trash. The Environmental Sanitation Department was established on Oct. 23^rd in the same year. This department had four divisions, an accounting office and a personnel office. It was responsible for air pollution control, water pollution control, garbage and sewage disposal, supervision and evaluation, accounting and personnel affairs. A sanitary sewage processing team, sixteen district sanitation teams and a vehicle maintenance garage were set up as sub-divisions.
        In May 1970, the Environmental Sanitation Department duties increased to include the control of waste from fowl and livestock. A security office was setup in response. In May 1971, the department set up an inspection office, a general affairs office as well as a research and evaluation Office. However, the research and evaluation office was soon dissolved in June 1973. The vehicle maintenance garage was also renamed the vehicle repair garage.
        In the light of increasingly serious environmental pollution, the government actively promotes better environmental protection measures and public pollution control. To improve the public living environment, the Executive Yuan passed the Environmental Protection Reinforcement in the Taiwan Area Program at Meeting No. 1627 on April 19, 1979. The program required the establishment of a provincial and a municipal Department of Environmental Protection. Therefore, according to an order issued by the Executive Yuan on May 10, 1982, Taipei City Government dissolved the Environmental Sanitation Department on July 1, 1982 and set up the current Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP first worked to step up control of noise, construction noise, vectors and toxic chemical substances. Division 2 was added to achieve these purposes. Furthermore, a sanitary landfill was added in 1983.
        To enhance auditing, inspection, enforcement, prosecution, execution and arbitration of violations of environmental protection laws and codes, on Feb. 1, 1984 the DEP set up the Environmental Inspection Division.
        In May 1986, Division 4 was added for the planning of waste management and waste management engineering, which had become increasingly important. The position of Deputy Commissioner was added.
        On May 1, 1987 the Neihu Refuse Incineration Plant was set up; it was not only the first incineration plant in Taiwan, but also one of the fourteen major economic construction programs at the time. The objective of its establishment was to utilize modern facilities and the latest incineration technology to reduce the volume of waste, save landfill space, effectively control secondary pollution and recycle resources.
        In keeping with the policy of prioritizing incineration over landfills and to effectively alleviate the problem of garbage disposal in Taipei City, the Muzha Refuse Incineration Plant and the Shilin Refuse Incineration Plant (renamed Beitou Refuse Incineration Plant on Aug. 7, 1995 due to administrative district adjustments) were added on July 1989 and July 1, 1991, respectively. In December 1993, Shanzhuku Sanitary Landfill was established. In April 2003, to comply with the Department’s organizational regulations, the General Affairs Office was renamed Administrative Services Office.

          In August 2016, we added Comprehensive Planning Division ad Climate Change Division in response to recent emerging environmental laws and regulations where related tasks were used to assigned to temporal task groups within the department. To address the recent topics and tasks on climate change and environmental issues, we renamed our departmental structures based on their functionalities.
Division 1 was renamed to Air Quality and Noise Control Division.
Division 2 was renamed to Water Quality and Vector Control Division.
Division 3 was renamed to Environmental Cleaning and Maintenance Division.
Division 4 was renamed to Waste Treatment Division.
Division 5 was renamed to Resource Recycling Division.
Division 6 was renamed to Occupational Safety Division according to Occupational Safety and Health Act, labor health protection and its regulation. Landfill site was renamed to Waste Disposal Site. Vehicle repair garage was dissolved since related tasks have been taken by the private industries. Sanitary sewage processing team was renamed to Resource Recycling Team and Public Restrooms Supervision and Maintenance Team and its sanitary inspection team was also renamed to Environmental Inspection Division. 
          We aim to use forward-looking organization structures to solve further and more serious environmental protection challenges. At last, we strive to provide a better environmental protection service with better efficiency and lower cost to fulfill our citizens’ needs.